“For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26)…
This year I have decided to push – in a more serious and focused way – one of the little businesses that I have been playing around with for some time. As part of this push, I have been focusing on my professional development and this means that I have enrolled in a few courses to improve my skills and knowledge in this area.
As anyone who has studied before would understand, these extra courses and this extra study takes time and effort.
It is very important that I am focused on how to develop and improve my skills and efficiencies. And because of this additional competing element that is now a part of my life, other – less important things – have had to be put aside. And that is okay with me, because I am aiming for some extra letters after my name. And those letters have a great deal of value in my little business and for my extra work.
And I have been thinking about all those extra letters that people work so hard to add behind their names – MBA, PhD, and all the others – and it has caused me to reflect on the important things… “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26)…
“Jesus told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21).
And it occurs to me that I am like a hermit, who spoke to the traveller who commented on his lack of worldly good. When the traveller asked him where his good were, the hermit asked the traveller in return, “But where are your goods?” And the traveller responded, “But I am on a journey.” “Yes,” The hermit replied, “So too am I. My destination is heaven.”
And I have been reflecting on the efforts that I am making for some letters that will disappear on the day when God requires my soul of me… And that makes me think about the letters that I really must be working towards… And they are ST. I need to be aiming to earn an ST to put BEFORE my name. Because it is only those letters out in the FRONT of my name that will be of any use to me when God requires my soul of me. Those letters after my name will fade into the dust from whence, I have come…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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