Monday morning as I got out of bed and started getting ready for the day I was running through the list of tweets that had accumulated while I was sleeping. I breezed past headlines from CNN, the daily CS Lewis quote, but was stopped by John Piper's first thought he had shared for the day
Jesus to the rich young ruler: You lack one thing. Treasuring me more than money. (Mark 10:21)As I mentioned briefly in my last post, one of my newest projects is a textbook buyback business called MadTown Text. Over the last couple weeks I had this idea of buying and reselling textbooks on campus at better prices than the bookstores to make a profit. Since the business would be just me and really wouldn't have any overhead costs, I figured I could probably make some pretty good money if I really pursued the idea. So, last week I decided to jump out and really give it a try. I talked to friends, set-up a website (via facebook of course), designed a logo, organized financials, printed promo materials, and started spreading the word around campus. The first week of classes is a little "behind the game" in terms of the perfect time to buy and sell textbooks, but I had all the time in the world not a lot to do yet, my point finally, is that MTT kind of took over my life last week. So, when I read that Piper tweet, a twinge of conviction was almost instant. I had spent the whole last week pouring into this business venture, figuring out the best ways to make the most money. I was chasing after a new opportunity, but I had to ask-was I treasuring this promise of money too much? I decided to take my morning quite time in Mark 10: 17-31.
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' " 20 "Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." 21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." 22 At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" 27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." 28 Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!" 29 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first."This is an account I've read a lot actually. Money and my walk with God is something that I seem to think about pretty often. There seem to be so many different tangents that money conversations can take-what does it look like to spend in a godly way, how much should I be giving, what is the best way to save in a godly way, should I be even be saving, can I trust God with everything and still be "financially secure" by the world's standards, what kind of action should be incited by stats like 6% of the world's population resides in America while 50% of the world's wealth resides here (taken from Randy Alcorn's The Treasure Principle
)? So deep many questions there, but on Monday the question really was simply about my heart. I heard God asking "Randi, are you treasuring Me most? I've called you to the life I designed for you; I have laid out a mission to glorify me with all the I have entrusted to you. You are blessed with much, are you using it all for Me?"As I spent time sitting with Jesus and going over the Mark passage it really stuck out to me that when looking at "every day life" through the scope of the Gospel, actions that look good on the outside just don't cut. Running up to Jesus and bowing before Him will do us no good if we aren't going to be honest with Him about the shape in which we are coming before Him. He can look upon us with compassion, but if we're holding ourselves back because of fear or money or obligations or whatever He can't take us in. Finally, I saw yet again that I am incapable of any of that. On my own, I can't put aside the false hope that this world carries, I can't look past my money and treasure Jesus more without being totally reliant on His Spirit. That was a humbling way to start the morning. I was so thankful to the Lord for the moment He took to bring me to His feet to start the day knowing I needed Him to help me surrender every moment that I would encounter.
