Sunday, March 13
Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Psalms 63, 98, 103
1 Corinthians 1:17-31
Mark 2:18-22
Confession time. I spent my working life thinking that getting ahead was the way to success and happiness and would lead to security in the later years. Professional success meant more than income – it meant better assignments, more control of the hours and days I worked, and when and how much down time or vacation time I could command.
I suppose I had it right in the 8 to 5, Monday through Friday, world. And… I’ve come to realize I had it wrong in the world that matters. The world we aspire to. The world of everlasting life.
Confession time again. For some years, I’ve read, and sometimes written, these meditations. I know the drill: (1) read the scriptures; (2) think about them; (3) read the day’s meditation as written by one of us. Often, I went right to step 3. Wrong world. (Stop tape: If so much of what I did and do is wrong, why is it so crowded in this world? Restart tape.)
Take a few moments to work through today’s reading from Corinthians. Paul says the same thing over and over, but he says it beautifully, and his point is always the same. He’s telling us that in how we live – now, as well as in Greece in the years just after Christ’s death – we’ve got it wrong. Where God wants up, we choose down. Where God wants peace and giving and putting others first, we pursue aggression and taking and promoting numero uno.
It’s a hard lesson. The world says, “Do this and you’ll get ahead.” Paul, writing Christ’s word, says “Do this and you’ll be doing it the wrong way.” He’s saying that if you take off the top, that’s all you’ll get. And it’ll never be enough. But if you give off the top and live on the rest, you’ll have enough and you’ll enjoy it more. Can you imagine your boss or teacher or superior telling you that? Actually, in thinking back, I had a few who did. And I usually ignored them.
Foolish me.
Ed Spaulding