Deep Calls Out to Deep

When I was a kid, I thought a satellite dish meant you were rich.  So many people have them now and they are little and cute.  When I was a kid, they were giant things in someone’s back yard that looked meant to call the home planet.  In ground swimming pools were also a sign of wealth to my childhood self. Of course, I thought Kmart was fancy shopping, so what did I know?

I once read that if you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change that places you among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.  I never looked this up for fact checking.  I will say I have never felt among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest.  Not that I mean to be ungrateful, I do know I have a lot that many would love to have. I sponsored a World Vision child years ago. I got this packet with a picture of a precious little girl who was seven and it said she walked miles to a town water supply then carried buckets back to her village. I got home with my packet and my unsuspecting nine-year-old stepson was sitting in the floor playing a video game.  I said this girl is seven and she has a job, get up.  He just looked at me and smiled. 

I wonder about wealth.  Is it perspective, is it statistical, is it wrong? I will say whether in the top 8% or in much better shape than a seven year old who has to travel to get water, I felt never felt fully secure in finances.  I always think something could happen.  My husband and I will look at the same account and see it completely differently.  He’ll see money for what we need and I’ll see that there isn’t enough money if it all goes wrong.

I think this is why Jesus cautioned us where your treasure is there your heart is.  Sometimes it seems the scriptures where Jesus talks about the wealthy make a lot of us have decide their wealth is the only problem.  And yes, Jesus did say riches make it difficult to enter the kingdom of Heaven. But I’m not certain riches are the whole problem. Jesus spent time with Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and Joseph of Arimathea, all wealthy people. I think the problem is if the riches are their security more than Jesus. For instance, in Luke a man wants to follow Jesus and Jesus points out how hard that truly is. Then He tells another man to follow Himand the man says let me go bury my father.  Jesus says let the dead bury their own dead.  Yet another I will follow You, Lord but after I say goodbye to my family. Jesus says he is not fit for the kingdom. None of this had to do with wealth.

By the way, I have always thought this was a little harsh.  Can’t the guy go bury his father?  And yes, I’ve heard that his father wasn’t likely actually dead yet so the guy was kind of saying let me go do this part of my life first. But the point is something was more important.  Something was more important than Jesus standing before them in this very moment.

Each individual thing, even wealth which seems to get a lot of air time isn’t the sole problem, the problem is its priority in placement. Following Jesus is hard and impossible to accomplish if He isn’t first. He is the only real security.

Last election, and before I upset anyone in the political realm, I truly don’t think any candidate would have made me feel secure. That said, last election, I stopped into a chapel to pray before I went to the polls. While I was praying a Psalm I have studied came clearly to my spirit. 

Psalm 146:3-4

Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

I remember studying this Psalm in a Bible study once because someone made the point of legacies and buildings and that sometimes plans are carried out.  I said I read this more like if a King planned to pardon a prisoner and told no one then the king died, that prisoner is out of luck so we have only one eternal safety and pardon.

That Psalm felt ever present with me in that moment and I also felt deeply in my spirit the Lord saying you are not going to like what’s coming but you will be okay, everything will be okay.  And I had an abiding peace in a very coming conflicted political climate. 

I feel I haven’t been as concise in this post as I am sometimes. What I am trying to say is I may not have a complete trust in a financial security for myself and I certainly do not feel a political security but I know my true security, I know my treasure.  Do I treat Him completely as first the way I should always?  I’m ashamed to say no. But is that His rightful place. I say confidently oh yes!

So to quote one of my top beloved hymns, in the words of Eleanor Hull,

Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;

Thou mine inheritance, now and always.

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart.

High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.