What have we found that is Real?

The world is full of enticements, most of which will promise wealth, pleasure, and success in each endeavor. We were told that setting goals is the way to prepare our future as a guarantee of finding our place in society. In an environment of competitors where everyone tries to outdo the next person, reaching your desires faster and more eloquently means more than working together. This hasn't always been the manner of helping each other, especially for those who entered this country, poor and escaping the tyrannical forces of the old country. Our grandparents, or generations earlier, depending on your age, set the example of hard work with cooperation of their neighbors when things got too difficult to manage alone.

This of course changed as the need for accumulation of goods became the central theme when the old adage of “keeping up with the Jones” became a central mantra. That certainly wasn’t then or even now a bad thing. However, the quest of adhering to this philosophy became a manner of “I need to get ahead of the crowd and become the envy of my neighbors.”

A parable about the rich fool who didn’t have enough space to house his accumulation of goods. “Take heed, and beware of all coventness; for a man’s life does not consist in an abundance of his possessions.” And he 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 grains and goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is he who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Lk 12: 13 - 21).

Does looking at earth’s wealth, which most people look for, become a problem as far as modern philosophy dictates? Remember what Jesus said about the heart. “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” ((Mt 6: 19 21).

The answer to this question and many other scenarios regarding “What have we found that is Real?” has become the difference towards our heavenly treasure being of extreme importance as opposed to earthly treasure which will pass away when we die.

God will not deny our ability to gather goods into our barns, so long as we share with those who have little or none. The money or treasure we possess are not ours since they came from God.

We have been endowed with all our gifts to be shared. That is the meaning of God’s blessings on each one; a gift for all not for one. That becomes what we have found is real!

Ralph B. Hathaway