Take a Number

           What are the things in your life that are the most important? I was in a doctor's office recently and noticed a sign on the wall that urged the patients not to answer phone calls during the doctor's visit. I thought that was something that no one would do and in fact would cause the embarrassment for it to happen but that is not the case. There probably have been examples where a person's phone has rung and the patient then answers the phone disregarding the doctor and his examination. We seem to have prioritized things in this life around the incoming phone call and want to answer it no matter what it may take to do so. I saw another sign that says somewhat the same thing and the sign said, “Don't ask Jesus to take a number.” Having gone to the VA for a number of visits, I recall having to “take a number” in order to get service for filling a prescription. Our attitudes with the personal cell phone have come to the point of asking Jesus to take a number. In reality, we probably think that we would never ask the Lord Jesus Christ to take a number as He is considerably the most important Being in our lives. Luke 18:22-23 says, “Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.”

           The rich young man in essence said by his actions that Jesus and eternal life were not the most important thing in his life. He was willing to walk away from the offer of eternal life solely based on all of the possessions that he had accumulated in his life up to that point. The passage says that he was “very rich.” He was so rich that he thought more about his possessions than he did for the requirement to have eternal life. It was as though he was asking Jesus to “take a number” and he would get back to Him when he had another opportunity probably after he had taken care of his possessions. Somewhere along the line, our lives have shifted the importance of things all around so that they are backward. That which is the most important has slipped down the ladder while those things that are useless and absurd are moved to the top of the list. Our health and doctor's visit to determine a cure for our particular disease has been displaced by an incoming call on our cell phone. When you look around your room this morning and see all that you possess, would you be willing to throw it all away in order to possess eternal life? Of course, we would like to have both our riches and eternal life. That wasn't the offer that the Lord Jesus Christ presented to the young rich man. He offered him a choice and the riches won out even though it “made him sad.” It says that he went away sorrowful but the really sad thing is that he went away in the first place. Take the same thought and run it down a few degrees. What is more important to you than reading your Bible? What is more important to you than sharing your faith with someone else? What is more important than spending time in prayer this morning? What is more important to you than forgiving a person who offended you? Sad to say, we may end up walking away from God's plan for our lives because of our possessions because we are very rich. Life has a way of reminding us all of that which is the most important in our lives. Praise God today for all that He has given us.