Monday Thought

Good Morning Friends,

"And he told them this parable:  'The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, 'What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.'  Then he said, 'This is what I'll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'  But God said to him, 'You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'  This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.'" (Luke 12:16-21)

This story is about priorities and ignoring what is important.  The rich man thought he was being wise and taking care of the future.  There are many people like him in our day.  People store up resources for retirement.  We plan and save so that we can be sure we will be comfortable in our older years.

People insure themselves to protect their lives against harmful incidents.  We insure our houses so they can be replaced in case of fire.  We insure our cars so we can buy another if it is wrecked.  We insure our health so that a medical problem will not wipe out all of our savings.  We insure our life so our families are provided for in case of our death.  People look ahead and prepare for the future and do all we can to make provision for what might happen.

Yet, many of those who prepare so wisely for the future ignore God and ignore what happens after death.  This rich man did.  He did a good job of planning for life, but he forgot to plan for death!

This parable is not trying to teach us to make no provision for our future.  Rather, it's pointing out that provision for the rest of our lives on earth is still just short-term planning.  Don't forget to do your long-term planning, too!

His, by Grace,

Steve