Worthless things

"Incline my heart to your testimonies
and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your way."
Psalm 119:36-37-He

There is this picture post...thingy...floating around facebook.  I posted it on my wall because it is a great saying and the speaker is one of my favorite authors, Francis Chan.  The saying goes like this, "Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter". 

I am a schemer by nature.  I have so many ideas and so many things that I want to accomplish, it can get kind of annoying at times...just ask my wife.  I have a tendency to float from one thing to another before accomplishing the first thing.  I have had to learn to complete a project and see it to the end before I start another one, even if it is not going the way that I had planned originally.  I'm not great at it but I am better than I used to be. 

With all of these things that I want to do and want to accomplish, sometimes I have to stop and think...do the things that I do really matter??

All of these dreams and stuff I want to accomplish, does it really matter? 

Is it going to make a difference? 

Is what I am doing for my glory or for God's glory? 

In Psalm 119 David writes and asks God to turn his eyes from worthless things.  I love that phrasing.  But I have to ask, do we ever ask that of God? 

Are the things that you are doing worthless? 

In the grand scheme of eternity, are they going to matter?

Sometimes, I really have to hold my tongue when I talk to students entering their college years (but maybe I shouldn't) and they tell me their plans and what they want to major in and do with their lives.  I often wonder, where does God fit into all of those plans.  I hear plans to major in things that will end up being...well...worthless.  It sounds like Beaker from the Muppet's, "Me me, mememe me me me".  I never hear plans to the tune of, "I want to major in such and such, so I can serve God in this way".  I was with a student the other day who told me they wanted to major in a field dealing with mechanics.  You should have seen the look they gave me when I suggested they could use that to figure out how to build machines that would dig wells in Africa for people who don't have drinking water. 

It makes me so incredible sad when I hear students who have gone to church all their lives, make plans for their lives, that puts God last in their lives.  That seems to be the cycle of the "American Dream".  Go to college and major in something that will make you lots of money, serve yourself, have a nervous breakdown or mid-life crisis because you are ultimately unsatisfied because you are serving only yourself. 

Paul says that whatever we do... do it for the Glory of Us?  WRONG!!  Do it for the Glory of God!! 

How can we do that? 

By serving others. 

God says that we should not look to only our own interests but to the interests of others.  THAT is something worthwhile!!

Are your eyes focused on worthless things? 

May our LORD be with you
Josh