- and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. -
If you’ll remember my last post, the man in verse 13 has retained his riches to the detriment of his soul or physical harm.
What’s the idea there? The man sacrificed something, knowingly or unknowingly, for his riches. This happens constantly in our lives even over the most mundane decisions.
You want to sleep in? That’s an hour you didn’t spend making breakfast for your family. Want to get the house clean? Forget about taking a nap.
I like to call this phenomenon the sacrifice of time. I think Jesus’s comments on no greater love also speak to this sacrifice in a proper heart.
You are a continuous evaluation between your responsibilities, pleasures, and meaning.
It’s for that reason that loss hurts so much.
The time you have is limited (worse the length is unknown), therefore losing something you put time into means that portion of your life is wasted.
Well, maybe you look at that truth, and it fills you with bitterness. Maybe the fact that getting something costs something is acceptable.
But how can you deal with the cruelty of your work just being taken from you by an arbitrary universe? How do you smile knowing it’s all going to be taken in the end?
You might decide to act for your own benefit exclusively. You may commit fraud and cheat your friends out of their labor.
What happens? You get the riches minus the justification for your existence, but maybe you can at least avoid pain before you die.
Something happens though. Chaos comes to you in the form of the law, a suit, or even a natural occurrence that destroys your wealth.
Your riches were purchased via your soul and community. You dealt treacherously to morality and God, and even the little pleasure you managed to squeak out for yourself is removed.
And rightfully so. In more sane moments of your life, you might even agree.
Your hand is empty or perhaps all you can hold onto is something empty like an addiction. You’ll buy the bottle and sit in your ripped lazy boy waiting for the end.
You have nothing, save for your son.
What can you offer him? You cannot give him wealth, yours has been taken.
You cannot give him a community, yours has rejected you.
You cannot give him a father, your barely human.
That’s a dire story, and it’s definitely true for some people. It’s probably not true for you though.
Right?
The point of knowing this truth in Scripture is not to think, “that could never be me,” or “I’d never let my life get to that point.”
It’s to realize that humans do get to that point and your one of them. It’s to realize there is a spectrum between the ideal and a father who cannot support his children.
Which side of the seesaw do you want to be on? How far do you want to avoid the other edge before you tilt in the wrong direction?
Here’s the really important thing to learn, and it requires absolute humility: no one knows where the point of no return is.
What? Be an uptight goody two-shoes?
No. Avoid undeniable sin at all costs.
Housekeeping: Hey, I missed you all last week. Obviously, the lack of a post this Tuesday was due to the holiday.
So why no posts the previous week? Well, this is hard to say, but Katie and I experienced another pregnancy lost.
I needed a break, and I needed to say goodbye. I’ve kept posting through most of our miscarriages, but this one just hit particularly hard.
I think it’s an endurance question. Sure, I can trust God when I get punched, but sometimes my head is fuzzy on the fifth one.
I’m human, and I hope you can forgive my short comings. God bless you and yours.
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