May 20, 2012 – John 11:28 – 11:57

48 – It is very easy to see where the priorities lie with the leaders.  They are suppose to be the leaders of the Church and leading people to God, but their reaction is “the Romans will come and take away our land and our nation.”  This is what will happen anyway.  This is what is always going to happen here on Earth.  Have you ever thought about how much blood has been shed over land.  We want this or that piece of land and we are going to take it if you won’t give it to us.  Babylon, Greeks, Romans, Turks, Napoleon, US from Indians, Hitler.  It is all just rock and dirt.  We are so obsessed sometimes with the ground beneath our feet and we fight over “ownership” of that land.  Can you really ever “own” the land.  Do you have any control over it.  Ask a farmer if he controls his land when there is a drought.  Ask someone if they control their land after an earthquake or tornado has destroyed it.  Land is just another material thing that we cannot take with us and worrying about leads us away from God. 

On a much smaller scale, how much time do you spend making sure your lawn looks just so.  How much control do you have, do you really own it.  I might think about it a little too much and give it a little too much time.  But you cannot just leave it in disarray.  The answer, as with almost every answer, is a balance.  You can do things, have things, build up things, until they become a distraction from God, then they have gone too far.  Every time I come home from work thinking about mowing and am greeted by a 3 year old who wants to play trains with daddy, I think about that balance.  Where are our priorities.  What are we filling our life with.  Are we thinking  like the Pharisees and worried about our land and nation instead of worrying about our soul and where we are putting God in all of this.