Read Matthew 16:24-27
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
“I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.” (Philippians 4:12 NLT)
Ah, lucky number thirteen. Yes, you heard me right, I just love the number thirteen. I was born on the thirteenth and have always felt that the number thirteen was kind of my lucky number. It is true that the thirteenth chapter of Revelation is the chapter about the rising of the beast that is to be known by its number, six hundred and sixty-six. It is true that many since the eradication of the Knights Templar have held the superstition that Friday the 13 is an unlucky day. But the truth for me has always been that thirteen is a great number, and there for I am excited to be writing about Pope Francis I’s thirteenth ailment of the church.
Ailment of the Church #13: Wanting More. We are living in a culture of excess. There is nothing, relatively speaking, that we do not have in terms of materialistic stuff. We have nice houses, easy access to whatever stores we want, cars to take us from point a to point b in no time at all, and we have technology to do practically everything for us. We have our food grown and/or raised for us, harvested and/or butchered for us, and often times cooked for us at any one of our many choices of restaurants. Our holidays are feasts that could feed third world countries, our houses have enough power to light up said third world countries, and our lifestyles literally gorge on the vital resources that could majorly benefit third world countries.
With all of that said, we are living in a culture that is literally eating iteslf to death. No, I don’t merely mean this in a literal sense with the high rates of obesity, heart disease, and preventable cancers (though that is a part of it); rather, I mean this in a much more all-inclusive way. We are so full to the brim with everything we could ever want, and yet we are always hungry for more. What’s sad is that this is not just pervasive in our society; however, this sort of disease is prevalent in the church as well.
As the church, we should be content in all things. Whether we have tons or we have nothing, we should be grateful for everything. We have been given, literally, the keys to eternal life and the power to usher the Kingdom of God into this world; however, that’s not enough is it? We have found ourselves wanting of more. We want bigger churches, with bigger and more sustainable budgets, and higher attendance. Individually, we the members of the church want the same sort of lifestyle found in the world. We want more stuff, we want more status, we want more power. But Christ, has called us to deny such things, to pick up our cross and to follow him.
So, which is it? How long will we continue to be mired by the stuff that consumes us and, if we continue to be stuck in this mire, how much longer can we really call ourselve Christians? Are we still Christians at this point? Are we still followers of the Christ who forsook all status and power in order to bring us redemption and life? Christ is calling us to something better than the stuff we are seeking after! Christ is calling us to something better than the mire we find ourselves in. Christ is seeking to heal the disease that we have brought on in ourselves through our covetous desire to have more. Today’s challenge, perhaps our life’s challenge, is to stop coveting, to stop wanting more, and to be content in all things.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
“Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little.” – Marguerite Gardiner
PRAYER
Lord, create in me a contentment in all things that I may move forward and being a living example of the abundance that is in you. Amen.