In case of fire.....

 

While I wouldn’t consider myself “rich” by any means, my wife and I are blessed to live a comfortable life.  We have funds to spend on Starbucks iced coffee when we need a little pick-me-up, money for take-out at least once a week, and when we feel the need for a home improvement repair or we want to help the kids out with their finances, we know it won’t break the bank to splurge every once in a while.

That being said, I still think it would be difficult to live without the comforts of my daily life, that wouldn’t have been afforded to me if it weren’t for my prosperity.  The gospel I reflected on today was one of those faith-testing moments where you have to look at your life and determine where your priorities are—God is asking us if He is ours (Matthew 19:16-22).

Or put another way: If there was a fire, what would you grab as you got out of the house?  

My list of items has changed over my life; it used to be a laundry list of 25 different things.  Now, it’s down to one thing: my family.  Everything else is just ‘fluff’.  I think this is Jesus’ point–at the end of days, it’s not the things we have that matter but how we treated one another.

The commandments Jesus listed out for the young man are all about relationships with the people around us, and in expanding upon them at the end, Jesus reminds us that ultimately we’re created to love and care for others.  He calls the young man to give up what gets in his way of loving and caring for his neighbors which, by the looks of it for this young man, is attachment to his possessions.

As I reflected today on this Gospel, I asked myself the following questions:

What gets in the way of my caring for and loving my neighbor?

What grace might I ask of God to let go of those attachments?

How might I give more to the relationships in my life?

At the end of the day, I realized that what I care the most about are the relationships in my life–my wife, my children, my grandchildren, and most importantly, Jesus.  In responding to the goodness of God’s deep and generous love for us, we turn to our neighbor in striving to have good, right, and life-giving relationship, relationships that ultimately bring us closer to God.

Jesus invites us daily to know Him more.  When we spend time with Him reading the word, in quiet reflection, or in daily prayer, we’re deepening our relationship with the Creator.  We’re allowing Him into our lives and letting Him fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts that only He can seal.  And when we know Him, giving up iPhones, video games, money, comforts, etc. won’t feel like a burden.  We’ll find a willing heart, eager to follow God all the days of our lives.