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This blog is simply meant to bring God the glory; no more and no less. I'd love to hear from you! Comments, questions, conversation. rebecca.labriola@gmail.com

Monday, October 19, 2015

Rich. Monday, October 19. 2015.

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”
Luke 12: 16-21

This Gospel reading from today was a somber reminder.
Of a couple of things.

In this parable,
God reminds the rich man that he is mortal.
He will die.
And in this case,
very soon.

We all know that we are mortal beings.
But sometimes life sweeps us up
and we forget that death is inevitable.
We like to think we are invincible.

The idea of death is a scary one,
so we put it on the back burner
and we go go go on with our lives.

And unfortunately,
all too often,
the way in which we go go go,
is much like the way of the rich man.

We live in a world where most of us have to work.
We need food.
We need clothes.
And we need money for those things.
And as a result,
we work our lives away.
Money and materials become our livelihood.

We are oh so rich in the world.
In things of this world.
And we are oh so poor in what is rich to Christ.

“You’re going to die tonight
and all that you’ve worked for won’t matter anymore.”

How blunt!
What a wakeup call.
What a reminder that working our lives away on the worldly things
is basically in vain.

We need to work on our souls.
We need to work on our hearts.
We need to work on our relationship with Christ.
Strengthen our weak points.
Seek healing for our souls.
Learn to love.
Seek Christ.
Put our stock in things not of this world.
It is there that our work will never be in vain.

Being rich in what matters to the Lord is a journey.
A lifelong one.
One that we may fail at.
Even multiple times a day.
But a worthwhile journey.
One that will bring us closer to the heart of Christ.

Let us strive to be rich in what matters to God.
And to intentionally not be rich in what matters to the world.

To be rich in the Lord means to not have to worry about the things of this life.
Because they are in His hands.
In His control.

If we are rich in Him,
it does not matter who the world says we are.
Because our identity is found in Him.

If we are rich in Him,
we will trust that He will provide for our needs, whatever they may be.

If we are rich in Him,
we will live for Him
and we will die for Him.

Lord, help us to be rich in You.