“Seek first the kingdom of God . . .”  Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew

“I never saw a U-haul following a hearse” Anonymous

We spend our lives pursuing happiness.  In so doing we are told we must accumulate, achieve,  and accomplish.  We pursue a degree.  Then a well-paying job.  Then a spouse.  Then a house.  Then stuff to fill the house; that includes children.  The pursuit of these objects provides us with a means by which we measure our success, and in so doing define our self-worth.  In the process we define ourselves by what we do, what we have, or what others think of us. Somehow we are deceived, and all too willingly believe, that if we can surround ourselves with temporal things our lives will have meaning and we will feel good about ourselves. 

We spend our years building up our personal portfolio that puffs up our ego, never recognizing that what we’re actually doing is constructing the walls of our own prison in which we’ll be confined.   The present day popularity of gated communities are evidence of this.  In the process our most valuable assets, our spirit and soul and most meaningful self, are being incarcerated in the living hell of this confinement.  We become shells, poor reflections of the beautiful and beloved children that God created us to be. The color drains out of our lives, as well as our faces perhaps, and live in the gray ash of all that is destined to disappear.

Some people spend their lives this way.  Curious, isn’t it, how all of the accumulations suddenly don’t mean anything when one needs to downsize, or gets sick or even dies?  The estate sale is a powerful reminder that temporal accoutrements cannot provide comfort or security or all that is truly lacking in our lives.

The truth is it just doesn’t work! It is a lie.  And it all ends, sooner or later, one way or another.

I have personally fallen into that trap.  You probably have as well.  Maybe you’re still in it!?  We’ve all witnessed people whose lives fell apart due to the pursuit of temporal things. It’s said that Howard Hughes died a crazy, albeit rich, old man. The most helpful thing that can happen is for us to fail; to have things fall apart.  For things to unravel, become undone, so that WE can come undone and be put together as the person we’re really meant to be.  The most helpful thing is for something or someone to cause the prison walls to come crashing down so that we can see the light of the eternal land which is beckoning us to live freely.  Preferably this happens sooner rather than later.

It is a frightening thing to leave the security of our safe and secure confinement.  It is a frightening thing to walk into the wilderness, trusting not in ourselves, but in Someone else to guide us. It is a frightening thing to live free.

“The Village” is a film by M. Night Shyamalan.  It depicts a utopian community that promises safety to people who live there.  They are not to venture too far away, outside of certain parameters, for fear of “The things of which we do not speak”.  What’s “out there?” Monsters that are nothing more than a false illusion intended to keep people trapped and under the control of others.  This film is an accurate description of the prisons into which temporal pursuits place us. 

It is only by stepping out boldly in faith, and loving Some One rather than some thing, that we are able to live fully and freely in the treasure land that is our true and eternal inheritance.