Am I Being A Spiritual Fool?

By Marcus Wallace

Do you want to know why I love the Bible so much? Well there are many reasons, but huge reason is that no matter how many times I have read a particular scripture, I can still get convicted by it as if I was reading it for the very first time. For example, at last week’s All Teen Back-to-School devotional, my friend, Ben Richey read a familiar scripture from Luke 12 during his lesson to the students.

The Parable of the Rich Fool
Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 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." But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:13-21)

Even though I have read this passage before and have even used it in lessons that I have done, I was still convicted with the truth of the verse. Ben challenged all of us in the room that in the grand scheme of things, the only thing that matters in our lives is our personal relationship with God.

This point was so convicting for me because after recently getting married, I have found myself thinking about many things that I would like to have for myself, my wife, and Lord-willing my future family. I have often thought: “One day I would like to have a house; One day I would like to go on family vacations; One day I would like to have a Big Screen T.V. to watch Sports on (I know that it sounds shallow, but I love Sports! Go UW Huskies!); etc.” Even though these things are not bad or sinful in themselves, if I am not careful, it is easy to put more time and effort into acquiring these things than it is to strengthening my relationship with God. Why is this so important? It is because when I stand before God one day, trivial things like how much money I had while on earth or how much equity did my house accrue won’t matter for anything. The only thing that will matter, like Ben said, is how much time and effort did I spend building up a love relationship with God. In other words, if I put more stock into earthly desires and possessions than I put into my relationship with God, than I, like the rich man in the story, are being foolish! This is, was, and will always be a good reminder for me about what really matters in my life. Praise God for this most needed reminder on Saturday afternoon.