The Way

May 09, 2023

  I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.  Psalm 16:7-8

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  Psalm 16:11

Jesus spoke about the narrow gate that leads to a narrow and difficult road, but it is the only way to Heaven.  It is a challenge to live on this path.  But it leads to good.  Some people feel that it is not good if it requires sacrifice, or pain, or difficulties.  They ask, “How could it be good if these things are on that path?”  But rarely does any path that leads to hidden treasure an easy proposition, is it?  Don’t we know this even from our own experience with life?  Therefore, the stress and strain and challenges to find treasure are significant only when the pursuit doesn’t lead to the treasure.  If it does then the challenges are seen as only the cost of the pursuit of the benefit.  Let’s discuss this more after the next point.

There are some tv dramas that follow gold and treasure hunters.  We see the agony, the sacrifice, and the difficulties required to produce only a small amount of gold, and yet, many people have lost their lives pursuing such a dream of riches.  As an example, are the 100,000 prospectors who made the initial trek in 1896 to the Yukon-Klondike region where only 30,000 succeeded in getting there.  The others died or quit along the way.  Of the 30,000 who made it there, only about 20,000 actually became prospectors as they dipped their pans in the water.  Of that number only 4,000 struck gold.  Of the 4,000 only a few hundred became rich.  The path they took was motivated by their greed and their love for the hunt for gold.  Ninety-nine percent would discover that they had wasted their life on an illusion.

When I consider these facts, I think of my years as a businessman.  I too followed an illusion early on that all my troubles would be remedied by more money.  With my hard-headed pursuit of it I began to realize greater income and wealth.  Even so I never found the satisfaction that I thought wealth would provide me.  In my career I also worked with several extremely wealthy people.  Rarely did I see them living with joy and freedom.  Rather I saw their greed and narcissism keep them in pursuit of more wealth or living in fear that they would lose what they have.  They remind me of those prospectors who spent their life on the wrong path that led only to an illusion of treasure. 

Not all wealthy people are predisposed as the greed driven are.  I will say that they are rare, but there are some people who are wealthy, but don’t find true treasure in earthly wealth.  They use their earthly wealth for God’s glory, and funny thing He keeps giving it to them.  I believe that they demonstrate, like the Parable of the Good Stewart, (Luke 12:42-44) that God can trust them with the wealth He has entrusted to them, without it corrupting their soul.  We have several such people who have been extremely generous to this ministry with not only their wealth but as well their time and talent.   I believe their efforts with making disciples and pointing them toward Jesus is close akin to finding the Treasure of the Universe and being generous in sharing Him.

Jesus spoke of a challenging way that leads to true treasure.  It doesn’t lead to an illusion of wealth, as the world does.  The world only promises money and power that will be snatched away at death, or when it is stolen, or erodes, or is lost.  Unlike the road to the Klondike, Jesus’ way leads to the reality of treasure and not an illusion.  His path is the right way, and in fact is what Christianity was first called.  It was called, The Way.  It is the right way.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21 ESV)