My God Reigns

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Somehow our American culture has it backward. We try to earn a lot of money so we can afford the trappings of our success. Things like 100" flat screen televisions with 3D, Digital surround sound, the monthly cable television bill with the NFL, NHL,NBA package, the brand new car so we can show the world how successful we are, and a whole brood of kids who honor us with their praise.

The trappings of success can actually  cause us to fall away from God. It seems that the more stuff we accumulate the more likely most of us will pay lip service to God.  In other words, we acknowledge that God does exist, but our actions in terms of the day to day decisions we make dictate otherwise.  In my life time I have seen more damaged children who come from wealthy homes. Why is that?  My theory is that families would rather throw their money into exotic family vacations than settle down and teach their children about honoring God on the Sabbath and giving to the needs on the poor.  Ever look at a google earth photo of your metropolitan area? An interesting phenomenon I noticed were the size of the houses the farther and farther one gets from the central core of the city.  Ir seems the more successful we become the more we try to shelter our family from the perceived evils on the core city.

I learned in our families tragedy that the trappings of success do not satisfy. My big screen TV didn't save me from the pain of our loss.The only thing that saved our family was placing one foot in front of the other and teaching my son that even in the face of tragedy we will still honor God on the Sabbath. Our God Reigns is a powerful reminder of the one we should call on when life takes an abrupt turn.