What's Really Important?

The English language is so bizarre. For instance, my son might say about a girl, "She's hot." Now to me that means she is sweating, perhaps wearing so many clothes that she's heavily perspiring. To my son, that means she's really cute. Or you might say that an item at the store is hot because it's moving so quickly. "That's a hot item right now," we might say. Or we might just use the traditional use of the word, it's really going to be hot in Nebraska today. The temperature is supposed to be around 103-105 with a heat index of 110 over the next two days.
It's the same thing with love. "I love ice cream." "I love the way you look in that outfit." "I love God." Now how can such a profound concept such as loving God become so trivial by reducing it to our feelings about frozen milk and cream? Satan has a way of doing that to us in our lives. He takes the important, the sublime, the things worth living for and makes them into trivial humus. Don't believe me? I saw a son who was struggling with his own life ask his father to come hear him speak at Bible camp. You should have seen the son's disappointment when his father didn't come. People whose lives at one time exemplified Christ, now can barely drag themsevles out of bed for worship. They can make it to the lake early to fish if the fish are biting, but to arrive to worship God is nearly impossible. "It's been a hard week."
"Woe to them who call evil good and good evil. That put darkness for light and light for darkness. That put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Max Lucado tells the story in one of his books of some theives who break into a store and don't steal a thing. They just switch the price tags. When the store opened the next morning it was business as usual. Some people got great bargains, others were fleeced. Satan has done that in our world. He's switched the price tags. Things that are important have to take a back seat to things that should never make it to the plate of importance.
Let's make a check today of what really matters. Paul said it was the cross. Don't believe me? Read I Corinthians 15:3 and see what he said there. Let's continue to bring our burdens, our joys, our friends, our families, our lives daily to the cross of Jesus. It is truly the answer to all the world's problems and it is what truly matters. Have a great day. JW