Seek First (Daily Reflections on Mt. 6:19-34)

The New Year is a natural time for reflection. It's a perfect time do a quick check on our current status and general direction and tweak our path or practices or habits or diet or financial investments. Each year in January the health clubs get an overflow of new membership signees. Yet studies show us that many of those eager enthusiasts lose heart and drop out of sight within six weeks. Staying focused on our newly established priorities often gets derailed by old habits and daily routines.

It's one thing to announce a new set of priorities or values or even direction. It's quite another thing to pull them off. Newton's Laws may have some impact on the personal patterns of our life. And perhaps the old cliche is right that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Or maybe the one that says, "Old habits die hard." (Sounds like the theme of a new Bruce Willis movie.)

As I was reading through the end of Matthew 6 again it began to occur to me that our vision might have something to do with the inability to get to where we need to go with our life or to become what God would want for our life. In this section of Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts addressing the base issue. He talks about where we store up our treasure. We can either store up treasure on earthly things or we can store up our treasure on heavenly things. Vision. Where are we looking? What has the greatest appeal to us? What pulls us in for a second look and third look and captures our focus?

In Tolkien's, Lord of the Rings, Smeagol becomes so enamored by the Ring of Power that it consumes his life and transforms him to the hideous life of the creature Gollum. He refers to the rings as, "My Precious." In his own words, "he has to have it." Gollum can no longer see anything else. In the end it destroys him.

Jesus urges us not to store up our treasures on the corruptible things of this earth. He commands us to change our focus to heavenly things, things of His Kingdom which is incorruptible and eternal. He urges us to set our sites not on wealth and materialism and power and position and things that the world considers of great value. Because, what you set your vision on, you will pursue and it will consume you.

And what's interesting is that Jesus goes on in Matthew 6 to talk about the eyes. He says the eyes are the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, he says, then your body will be healthy. If your eyes are unhealthy, then your body will be full of darkness. He's not talking about pink eye or cataracts or glaucoma here. He's talking about our vision, what we set our eyes on. What we set our focus on is what we will become or what will eventually consume us. Focus on the things of this world and in the end we will be consumed by them.

And ironically, Jesus' next twist takes a direct stab at our desire for riches, wealth, money, mammon, personal gain or whatever other word you want to insert there that draws our focus away from heavenly things. He proclaims that it's impossible to serve two masters. And without beating around the bush just comes out and says, "You cannot serve God and money."

It goes back to the eyes and vision and focus and motivation and priorities and the distractions of old habits and daily routines. When we set our eyes on the things of this world, our focus moves off of God and His Kingdom and heavenly things and then our life falls back to ultimate destructive forces. Nobody sets down to gain 40, 50, 60, 100 pounds after finishing high school or college or after getting married or having a baby. Somehow it just grows on us. Nobody after getting married sets out to see if they can ruin their relationship. Nobody tries to purposely overextend themselves financially when the get that job. Yet over time it happens. It's about our eyes!

That's why Jesus tells us not to focus on material, worldly stuff. Is there anything inherently wrong with houses or cars or boats or cell phones or tablets or clothes or having a portfolio? Absolutely not. It's the focus on getting, having, accumulating stuff that pulls us downward and corrupts our lives.  

Jesus says, don't worry about stuff. Do not preoccupy yourself with material goods or gain. Focus on Him not climbing the corporate ladder or adding tallies to your life. Focus on "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness." God knows what you need. He will meet your needs.

Some of the biggest issues people bring to me or complain about or struggle with are finances, stress and time. And usually the stress has to do with time and/or finances. And time because they are involved in four hundred million things or have their kids in those activities so that some day they can get ahead and have things. And often finances are wrapped in those things too. Of course many time finances are an issue because people haven't managed their resources well because they had to have stuff.

It's no wonder our world fills up with darkness, our hearts fill up with darkness, our lives fill up with darkness and stress and heartache and burdens and those feelings of being overwhelmed overwhelm us. It's the eyes. It's our vision. It's our focus. Seek first HIS Kingdom and HIS righteousness.

God, help me to keep my eyes only on you. You direct me my path, my life, my heart, my thoughts, my finances. I want to be full of light. I don't want those dark feeling to overwhelm me. 

Daily Reflections on Prov. 23:12 (Indulgence)

We've gone from being an obese nation to a morbidly obese nation. In others words, experts are saying that we've gone beyond a nation with a lot of overweight people, to a nation of people who are really fat. Indulgence is the name of the game. Walk into any restaurant and you'll be served up a meal with three times our daily necessary calories. We've even turned calorie free coffee into a sugar laden, gut busting latte. Oh and don't forget the extra whip.

Overindulgence pretty much marks our culture. We have very little discipline. Something new comes out and we have to have it. That's why our credit cards are maxed out and our personal debt looks like Mt. Vesuvius. We can't control our spending any more than we can control our waist lines. But the same thing is true when it comes to virtually anything else from sex to video games. We're an addictive society. We just can't seem to know when to quit, to lay off, to walk away, to push back.

Our habits have created health problems, financial problems, relationship problems, perspective problems, time problems, emotional problems, and spiritual problems. Our self-gratification gene and our lack of self-discipline has our life spiralling out of control.

Recently I picked up Dr. Michael Roizen's book, "You on a Diet." It's an interesting and informative albeit sarcastic read on eating and health habits of most Americans. It's not so much that we're all a bunch of couch potatoes, which is probably true; it has more to do with our lack of focus and discipline. Solomon, the richest man who has ever lived, talks of the virtue of self-discipline in Proverbs 23:12. He urges us to apply discipline to our life and to diligently seek understanding or knowledge. The point being so that we won't fall into a self destructive lifestyle.

January is a great month to start new goals. Many make New Year's Resolutions but quickly fall back into old patterns. Killing old destructive or unhealthy habits aren't easy. Starting new ones and getting them implemented in our life is even harder. Self discipline isn't necessarily the simplest path to follow. Start a new exercise program and you have to deal with soreness. That's enough to throw the whole "get healthy" plan out the window. But staying with it is what is necessary to get the desired results.

I like what Roizen points out in his book, plan for failure and be ready to make a "You-turn." Discipline is about getting back on the path after your side trip. As you continue to seek knowledge and understanding from God, you'll be quicker to recognize and avoid the things that get you off-track and you'll enjoy a much healthier, stress free life.

God, thanks for Your Word and Your Spirit to guides us, instruct us, and to help us stay focused in the right direction. Thanks for caring enough about my life to give me the help I need. I confess, that without you in my life I would be a total mess. Give me the insights and discipline through Your Spirit to live a healthy, abundant life.

Daily Reflections on Lk. 11:2-4 (Meaningless Prayers)

A friend of mine and I were musing one day about the ritual of praying before we ate. He jokingly utted the prayer, "Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub." I crossed myself and we dug in. Another friend joined us and upon hearing our conversation looked heavenward and simply said, "You know I'm thankful." Don't think we were being disrespectful or sac religious. We had gathered at breakfast to spend an hour in prayer, seeking God's will together.

Ironically, however, that is about how many look at prayer. For some, if you swallow one bite of food without praying for your meal, you've ruined it and you'll probably have indigestion for the rest of the day or maybe the week. For some, the words they utter before they devour are as meaningless as my friend's facetious prayer. For some, "The Blessing" magically transforms this ordinary food into holy food which directly goes to the healthful "nourishment to our bodies" even if it's sugar-filled, greasy or high in saturated fat. For some there's barely an acknowledgment of God's involvement in our lives.

The habit of praying before you eat is not to be about dogmatism, ritual or token acknowledgment of God's presence. It's to be a sincere appreciation of God's involvement, concern, provision and protection. Unfortunately for many, the few words spoken aloud or breathed in silence at a meal may be the only time they even stop to recognize God during the day. And because of the harriedness of the day, even that sometimes slides by unattended.

The point of prayer in the first place is to invite God into your life. When teaching His followers to pray, Jesus instructed them to begin by focusing on our relationship with God, asking Him to exercise His will in our life. We share our need with a heart of submission and authenticity, recognizing our dependence and desire for God's involvement. We ask for God's Spirit to continue to transform us into the image of His son. We ask for the ability to offer grace, mercy and forgiveness.

That kind of prayer doesn't happen in 10-15 seconds before we dine on our delectables. That kind of prayer stems from a deep desire to know and pursue God in every element of our life.

God, forgive me when I insult you with my brash or insolent attitude. You're more than a passing thought or personal ritual to bring good luck to my life. God, your the center of my life. I need and want you involved in my daily activities. I thirst and hunger for you.