"If the energy with which we pursue our own entertainment and appetites were deployed on behalf of the poor instead, then the world could be a much better place and we would find the life Jesus promised." That’s the last line in an email from Scott Todd, the leader of the Compassion.com medical team in Port-au-Prince. It got me thinking about the old quote (from an Oliver Wendell Holmes and Johnny Cash song –odd combination, eh?) “We’re so heavenly minded we’re no earthly good.”
I assume Oliver and Johnny were saying we can become so self-absorbed with religion the result is we become self-righteous hypocrites. This makes us no good to anybody, not even ourselves. But the opposite danger is just as fatal, and more likely to be in our mirror.
We become earthly minded we are also self-absorbed, self-righteous, and no good to anybody. That’s why Paul writes, “Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.” Col 3:1-2 nlt. That's heavenly minded, not religion minded.
Scott’s quote went out as part of a Haiti update from Cottonwood last week. One person wrote, “Wow! What a convicting statement. I highlighted it… because it really hit home."
The truth is we set our sights on plants for the back yard, fixing the car, finishing school, and eating our way through New Mexico. They aren’t bad things, but they aren’t the best things. Good is often the enemy of best. This world seems so real, so important, that it’s hard to keep our sights on the realities of heaven. We forget that we are only here for a bit, but in heaven forever. We forget how quickly that new car (with payments of $400.00 a month) will depreciate, but that the child we support in Haiti (for $40.00 a month) we will be able to hang with 10,000 years from now. We forget that we can send our investments ahead by investing in eternal things (people) rather than investing in stuff. We forget…
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