“And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” – Luke 12:19
Question: “What do retirement funds, college degrees, and nuclear submarines have in common?” Answer: “They are all designed to give us a sense of security – security for our future, security in our vocation, and security for our protection.” So, that little riddle got me thinking, do they really? Yet security in this increasingly insecure world seems to be one of today’s most sought after – and elusive – commodities.
Several years ago I suffered a sudden and unexpected medical event that nearly took my life. It should have actually, except for the quick action of my wife, and by the grace of God. And it happened despite my best efforts to do the right things – exercise, regular checkups, decent diet, hard work, retirement savings, and a college education – which according to conventional wisdom should have made my life secure. Right?
Didn’t Jesus tell a parable sort of similar? It was about a rich man whose land produced such a good crop he decided to build bigger barns to store it in, for he was certain he had enough to be secure for years to come; that is, until he received this startling wakeup call from God: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.”
For years I had mistakenly believed, like the rich man, that true accomplishment could be measured by how much we had stacked in the barn. But if my health incident taught me anything it was to beware of such thinking; that in fact there is but one measure of true accomplishment in this life and that is to fulfill the purposes for which God uniquely created each of us.
If you’re thinking like I did that when you have enough stacked in the barn you can just take life easy, eat, drink and be merry; beware, for you never know when your life may be demanded of you. It was precisely fifteen years ago this very day, in fact, when I was released from the hospital after my own wakeup call, and since then not a day has gone by I do not thank God for another chance to fulfill those purposes for which I was created. “Watch out! Be on your guard,” Jesus warned, “[for] a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”