31 July 2016 - identity

[ Today's Readings ]

We are called to put our trust in lasting things and in them to find fulfillment.

Even if we horde riches here below we will eventually be parted from them

‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’

Even if we labor with wisdom and knowledge and skill our work is still impermanent. If this sort of success is the main thing we seek in life we cannot ever be truly satisfied. We know somewhere deep down that success and wealth are temporary. They cause us anxiety whether or not we have them because we know that one day they will be taken from us. We can't count on them.

Instead, we need to find our treasure in heaven. We need to be "rich in what matters to God."

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. 
For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

This world where we gain and lose and this body that lives and dies are not the deepest truths of our reality any longer. Rather, God calls us to look at our lives from the perspective of eternity. In Jesus we have a hope which makes an eternal difference. We find that which cannot be taken away by the world. This is why in Jesus and Jesus alone we can know true peace.

When we begin to see things from an eternal perspective we no longer "toil in anxiety of heart". We no longer spend our days with "sorrow and grief" as our occupation.  Sin is uprooted from our hearts as we learn not to seek the temporary at the expense of the eternal.

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry. 

This reality already exists. We don't see it because we are not seeking the things above. Let us begin to live from the new and deeper identity Jesus gives us.

you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator. 

When we live from this reality we can ask the LORD to "prosper the work of our hands" without the risk of sorrow that comes when we do not number our days aright.

Let us seek that which endures. Let us fix our hearts on the one goal worth having and let that goal shape everything else we do.

When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.