This old house...

As I was driving to a job site yesterday, I noticed this broken-down house on the side of the road. It caught my attention to the point that I actually took the time to pull over and take a photograph of it. I knew the Holy Spirit had a lesson for me. You see, my Heavenly Father is a good and benevolent Father who takes the time to teach me along the way, wherever I am going. I hope you experience the same thing. If you don’t, you can. He desires to have an intimate relationship with you. Anyway, I was on my way to a job site where they just broke ground on a new shopping center. Several years of planning, making deals with tenant anchors, and all the financing and everything has been done. And now I come on the scene to mark where we will be putting the road signs. Its new growth. Its hard work, and investment, and hopes for profit. It’s all good stuff. But it is all temporary - I was struck by this fact as a took a moment to look at this wreck of a house. It was once the pride of a new home owner. Who knows how many memories were made there, children raised, meals shared, and lives lived? I think of my own home, built 120 years ago. No one alive today who first lived here – all dead and gone. There are natural forces at work that have to be constantly addressed… walls to be painted, grass to be cut, trees to be trimmed, floors to be cleaned and maintained. It is a constant march towards rot and decay. Left alone, it would fall down like this old wreck I’m looking at in a matter of years. I think of nations that have risen and fallen throughout the ages – our own nation, falling apart. I think of all of the great plans of proud men and how quickly they come to nothing. It is all so very temporary. Our very life on this earth is fleeting. As I am writing this, the clock is ticking every moment, closer to my last breath. This world is incredibly transient. Every day, people die and people are born. I think of my own children and how they will remember me. I think of their children – will I live long enough to imprint on their memory? And by the third generation, will anyone remember me? Will they even remember that I existed? Man, if my focus is on the things of this world, my life is pointless. If I am caught up in how nice my house looks, how good my hair or clothes are, or how I am perceived by others… I am nothing more than a vapor that will soon dissipate into nothingness. But I am not. I am fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s own image. I am destined for eternity with Him. And, my dear brothers and sisters… you too can have this blessed hope… this eternal outlook. Colossians 3: 2 tells us “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” And 2 Corinthians 4:18 says “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” God has a plan and a purpose for your life far beyond these temporal things… things of eternal value…. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” - Ephesians 2:10
 
I encourage you today, as you go about your daily routine, to focus on the eternal. I encourage you to offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Your home, your car, your clothes, and even your body… they are all on a path to decay. So, give your all to God. Let him lead you this very day in His perfect will… to do good works He has prepared for you, and you will store up treasures in heaven.
 
May it be so in Jesus’ name