Burdened by Abundance

In this Thanksgiving season, I have been thinking much about one word which really resonates with me: bountifully.  I appreciate how a psalmist expresses gratitude: ...for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you (Psalm 116:7b).  Yes, the Lord truly has dealt bountifully showering blessings upon me in so many arenas of life.  I've been reminded recently that no matter how mediocre or even difficult we may consider a temporary circumstance, most American citizens are simply rolling in the dough and living the good life in comparison to the majority of individuals around the globe.  We certainly have much for which we should offer thanks.  Yet I believe that in such bounty, we must be cautious to guard our hearts and minds, for our accumulations can easily transform into burdens of abundance.

Things are just things, temporary and fleeting objects which we accumulate to fulfill our needs, our desires, our entertainment, our desired status positions, and a myriad of other purposes.  Much of the time, this is quite fine until our sinful hearts get involved.  To quote Mark Driscoll, "Idolatry is taking a good thing, making it a god thing and that's a bad thing."  When a desire for more and more earthly things consume our hearts, our abundance truly does become burdensome.  One can wear himself out in constant comparison with others or endless striving for more, more, more.  But to what end?  Our greed is a bottomless pit that will never be satisfied.  During Jesus's earthly ministry, he preached to the people a message knowing that we could easily fall into the struggle and burden of abundance.  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 or rust 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).  I love this passage because it's clear that Jesus was not asking people to give it all up and be miserable, moping human beings.  However, He was clearly more concerned about their heart condition and helped clarify the understanding that true blessing and wealth lies not in our earthly possessions but in a heavenly inheritance for those who trust in Him as their Savior.  Truly, it's only when we loosen our grip on things of this earth and turn our eyes toward Him that we can even enjoy our current temporal blessings with the right attitude and view.  For all we have is from God, and just as it has been given so can it be taken away.  My heart cry becomes, "Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways" (Psalm 119:37).

I think also of a familiar teaching of Jesus, the parable of the pearl of great price.  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:45-46).  A man or woman living under the burden of abundance may discover the pearl of great price and be overjoyed to hear the beautiful truth that Jesus is the answer to our sinfulness and brokenness who has paid the price for sin and offers us eternal life in Him. And yet the ultimate treasure that He is, the pearl of greatest price, is too costly for him or her.  How could one consider laying down all else in exchange for the Treasure of Christ?  And yet look to the man in the parable; in his joy he took his abudance, his temporary fleeting abundance, and sold the bounty in exchange for not something but someOne far greater and more glorious.

On this Thanksgiving Day as we move into the Christmas season, may we have hearts full of gratitude for the way which we have bountifully been dealt with.  Yet would you, with me, consider where your heart lies in regards to your earthly treasures?  Do you live under a burden of abundance where you have allowed things to creep into a place of far too much importance?  Have you let good things become god things that you worship instead of using them to point you back with a heart of joy to the Giver?  When we look clear enough and hard enough if we're brave enough, it's sure to be an uncomfortable sight.  Then throw off the burden and rest blessed in the right bounty, the abundant love and grace we receive through Christ Jesus our Lord!

Don't Miss the View

A chord of notes in harmony.  A melding of complementary flavors.  A sentence in a book that is beautifully crafted.  There is no particular formula or criteria, but there are things in our lives that we know are simply at their best when we experience them.   And fall, it seems to me, was at its absolute prime today.  I was so blessed to enjoy its splendor when I went for a run this afternoon.  As I took off at a leisurely pace, I adjusted the cord of my iPod, began listening to the music in my ears, and focused on my breathing.  The air was crisp; it was an afternoon when the cool oxygen filling my lungs and the exertion of muscles in my body working to propel me forward made me feel especially alive.  As I continued a piece down the path, I happened upon it.  For yards and yards beyond me on my right, tree after tree leaned gracefully above me creating a canopy of the most vibrant, intense yellow.  I thought of pictures I have seen and longed to enter, those with peaceful paths lined seemingly on and on by stately oaks or maples.  Yet in that moment I had entered such a picture, and it was more magnificent than I could imagine.  Lamenting that I had left my phone in the car and was thus unable to photograph the moment, I conceded that no angle or amount of pixels could truly capture the beauty I saw before me nor the joy that it brought.  Instead, I feasted my eyes upon it and offered up a prayer of thankfulness for such extravagant beauty.

Thinking about this incredible sight, I have to wonder how many people missed on out it today.  No doubt billions, for only a crowd of a few Indianapolis residents used that part of the trail.  And even of those who shared the same path I traveled, many may have even failed to slow down or take note.  And what of all those equally beautiful trees and individual leaves just a bit deeper in the woods that even I did not enjoy?  Were they all for naught?  There is an old philosophical question that goes, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?"  Does the sound matter or exist if no living being is there to experience it?  So it is with these little hidden gems, these leaves and plants and creatures and complex little critters tucked away where no human eye can admire.  Is it a waste?  No, I believe that the uncelebrated such as these which live, shine brightly, then are gone without the least notice are a reminder of how much greater is the love of our Creator for us, His most precious creation.

In the account of creation laid out in the book of Genesis, we learn that God first spoke into being the land and the water, the plants, the day and the night, the living creatures.  And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:25)  But He wasn't finished yet; He was ready for the final piece.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)  While He had commended His earlier work as good, at the end of this day God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31, emphasis mine)  From the very start, our relationship with our Maker was meant to be distinctly different than that of the rest of creation.  We can read on only a couple of chapters later and see how the perfect relationship between God and the man and woman was marred by human selfishness and sin.  It's no secret that we've been experiencing and participating in the effects of the Fall ever since.  I can truly identify with a phrase that the apostle Paul uses, that we are sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Timothy)  We serve a perfectly holy God, and even our most minute sins (not to mention the ones that stand out more clearly and boldly) are an offense against Him which deserve infinite judgement.

Let me take you back to the previous question about those little leaves.  So what of those that vibrantly change colors and hang upon the branches with no eye to enjoy their brilliance?  Are they a waste?  This I do know, that if God would put such intricate detail and reflection of His glorious beauty into a hidden leaf, how much more does He love you and me?  He shouldn't, for we absolutely don't deserve it even a little bit, but praise Him that He does!  I love the beautiful picture that the Psalms give of the detail with which our Creator knows us, not at a distance but so intimately.  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb....My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately women in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139: 13, 15)

Not only did He make us and does He knows us to such extravagant detail, but to an even greater degree does He love us.  But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)  Yes, even while we were His enemies in rebellion against Him in our sin, the Son came down and took on human form, lived a sinless life, and allowed Himself to be hung upon a cross.  He suffered the wrath that I deserve, that you deserve, and He sacrificed Himself in our stead.  Don't miss out on the fact that our sins deserved punishment, for they are a crime against the perfection of our God.  He is a just God, and we must be thankful for He wouldn't be good if He were not.  Our sins could not be excused or looked over; there was a great price to pay, and Jesus Christ paid it in full.  He conquered death by rising again three days later, and He is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3)  This is the glorious, life shaking truth: Because of the work of Christ, all who call upon His Name in faith are saved.  Realizing that I am broken, fallen, and can never make the cut on my own, I am united to Jesus, my Savior, by making Him Lord of my life and trusting in His work, not my own.


Don't pass by the trail with the glorious view, and don't walk down the path without looking up at the One above.  He's glorious, He's majestic, He's more than words can say, and His love expressed through the work of Jesus shouts clearly what great depths He has gone to to bring us back to Him, to perfect joy and union with our Creator.  Don't miss the experience; don't miss the view.  It'll change you eternally.