Treasures?

Yes, I know, it's time for Leadership #4. Tomorrow.

I have more I want to say about the lectionary first.

This is from Luke 12:13-21:

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God." Verse 20, 21

I think we read that passage, and we think of all of the material possessions that we hold on to -- that we clutch in our tight hands.

I was thinking of this passage this morning, though, as I drove to work. I think we also hold many other "treasures" ahead of God. What are the items which we make more important in our lives than God?

• Our pride -- Do we fail to serve God because we fail to humble ourselves to his will?
• Our time -- Do we sometimes hoard it as if spending time might give us less of it?
• Our traditions -- Do we ever place "the way we've always done it" above "the way God wants us to do it?"
• Our fear -- Do we fail to risk because of our fear of failure?
• Our church buildings -- Have you ever noticed how we sometimes place higher priority on our physical buildings than we do on the ministry that happens within them?
• Our sanctuaries -- Has your sanctuary become the last safe place for your own wants and needs in the church building? Sometimes in our church, when everything else is changing, what happens in the sanctuary "must not be touched."

What other things would you add?

God offers us 'every good thing,' and yet we stand here, with inconsequential "treasures" clutched tightly in our hands. Until we open our hands, and let go of what we value, we can not receive those things beyond value from God.

I stopped writing this post in the middle and went up to the high school to pick G up from band practice. While I was waiting, this song came on XM radio (TobyMac):

I was made to love you
I was made just for you
Made to adore you
I was made to love
And be loved by you
You were here before me
You were waiting on me
And you said you'd keep me
Never would you leave me
I was made to love
and be loved by you

Anything I would give up for you
Everything, I'd give it all away
Image: Called "Repentance" from http://www.creative-international.com