Last November I told you of a rare experience — my truck running out of gas.
\nNow I have to admit, this rare occurrence is becoming a little less rare after this past Sunday.
\nAs I headed to church early Sunday morning, I noticed my truck was sitting well past the empty marker — again.
\nIn my rush to church I decided against re-filling my gas tank to insure I had plenty of time to set up for our sunrise service.
\nAnd unfortunately, gas tanks don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t re-fill on their own.
\nSo when I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop to get gas on the way home, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t complain too much when my truck coasted to a dead stop between Midway and 6th Ave on I-35.
\nAnd like last time, I had plenty of time to reflect on my current situation while I waited for help to arrive.
\nIt struck me as I sat, that in both instances, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really a lack of time or a lack of money that led my truck to running out of gas. The real issue at hand was greed.
\nIn both instances my boss had promised to give me a free tank of gas for helping him with a few side projects.
\nAnd in both instances, I decided to wait and run my truck empty, rather than risk loosing the chance to get a few extra gallons of gas for free.
\nThose few extra gallons I could have bought to get me through the weekend cost me a lot more time and effort than they ever would have if I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let greed take over.
\nIt’s sad when I think of how often each of us get caught up with greed.
\nSometimes its greed for a few extra gallons of gas, sometimes its greed for time alone or time with someone else and sometimes its greed for power, money, wealth or fame.
\nWhatever the greed is based on, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never really worth it.
\nTake Tolkien\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Lord of the Rings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as an example.
\nThroughout Tolkin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book and the recent blockbuster movie trilogy, everyone must face their own issues with greed and their desire for the power that comes with The Ring.
\nFor some it leads to murder, for some it leads to a life of addiction, and for others it leads to worry and pain and suffering but in the end everyone must face their own issues or they will be overcome by them.
\nIn life we all face similar temptations.
\nThe chance for more money, more power, more fame or more gas in your gas tank can easily ruin you.
\nThe desire for more can bring your truck from a blazing 75 miles per hour to a complete stop alongside I-35.
\nThe desire for more can ruin your reputation, your career and many times relationships with friends and family.
\nIn Matthew 19, we can read the story of a rich young man.
\nThe man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to be saved.
\nHe tells Jesus he has followed the commandments and asks, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What now?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you want to give it all you’ve got,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jesus replied. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Go sell your possessions; give everything to the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nThat was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.
\nAs he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nThe rich young man let greed stand in the way of entering the kingdom of heaven.
\nWe can look back and judge him or we can learn from the lesson and realize that we do the same thing everyday.
\nNot only am I greedy with my gas, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also greedy with so many other things as well, including my time.
\nLike many other things, my time is my time and I want full control of it.
\nI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want someone else trying to tell me how I can or can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spend my free time.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also constantly having to remind myself to give my daily \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tithe\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of time back to God.
\nLike I mentioned last week, He desires to spend time with us. He doesn’t want to simply be a light switch we turn on and off in our time of need.
\nHe wants to be first and foremost in our lives and I know He deserves that and so much more.
\nSo let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remember to give generously of our gifts, money, time, power and love not only to God but too each other as well.
\nAnd let greed be a thing of the past. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A greedy and grasping person destroys community; those who refuse to exploit live and let live.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d – Proverbs 15:27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last November I told you of a rare experience — my truck running out of gas. Now I have to admit, this rare occurrence is becoming a little less rare after this past Sunday. As I headed to church early Sunday morning, I noticed my truck was sitting well past the empty marker — again. … Continue reading When Greed Takes Over<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2090],"tags":[2088,2089,2092],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-reflections","tag-belton-journal","tag-columns","tag-newspaper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}