the double-standard

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Jesus

I'm going to propose that humans are finite. That may not be earth-shattering, but it's important to say, because it means a person's time is limited. They can only do so much in a 24 hour day, 7 day week, 12 month year, you get it. With that said, there's only so much one will be able to accomplish during this time of earthly existence for a) God or b) the world. (I include accomplishing things for oneself as part of accomplishing things for the world). And to be clear, "accomplishing" things for God, I mean loving Him and being devoted to Him, not in the sense that deeds are done for Him or in His name.

I think a double standard type mentality exists that I'm not sure is the best. Many people want to please God, to give Him honor and glory, which is a great thing to desire to do! Often times, especially in our culture that places a premium on "success," having money or owning a house or being pretty or having a model family or _________ (fill in the blank), there is a desire to accomplish much by the world's standards. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, but there's something to be said for the fact that both are hard to accomplish simultaneously.

For a simple example, I can speak for myself and say that I'm bad at multi-tasking. It makes sense, right? If I'm devoting my focus and energy, to say, writing a paper, it's going to be much harder for me to have a real and genuine conversation on the phone with a good friend. Some people can do it, and more power to them.

I think this clearly applies to our walks with Jesus. If we are trying to serve Him and love Him with all our hearts, and that is a primary focus where energy is concentrated, are we still able to devote the necessary time and energy to be successful in this world? Should we? I sure think it's much harder.

I think people fool themselves more often than they want to admit (I'm inclusing myself in this generalization). It would be great to do a lot for God AND to accomplish a lot of good in this world. Whom do esteem more highly and say more loudly "wow, what a great guy" to: a rags to riches businessman who gave away his enormous fortune to charity in his twilight years or a janitor who didn't finish high school but consistently gave $25 every Sunday to the offering. If we're honest, I think most of us would say the businessman.

This is my point, none of these example guys were necessarily bad, they both did good things, but we don't really know about each one of their heart relationships with God throughout their time on earth (because yes, they are both hypothetical example men). My point is that we tend to go "oooo, aaaaa, wowww" to the wealthy guy because he accomplished a lot by the world's standards. But who knows, the wealthy guy's family life may have sucked, his friends may have thought he was always too busy for them. And maybe the janitor was smarter than Bill Gates, but chose a janitorial lifestyle so he could get up and pray and sing worship hymns to God for 4 hours before work each morning.

This is all hypothetical, but hopefully you get what I'm trying to get you to think about. Our relationship with God is a matter of the heart, but do we orient and make decisions in our life, wanting that heart relationship with God to like an intense marathon, or a heart relationship that looks more like intense sprinting, followed by fatigue, rest, and then an intense sprint again or an intense sprint at the end...

Having success in this world is not bad. I think to try for it at such a level that it takes away from our relationship with Jesus, then it is a problem. We need to be realistic with ourselves. We can only do so much with the time we have.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21 NIV)