Read pgs 112-115 in the 30DCC guidebook
"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." Jesus, Luke 16:9
Today's reading in our guidebook poses one of life's great questions: what would we do if we knew when our life would come to an end?
What if we somehow had supernatural knowledge that tonight was our last one on earth?
What would we do? Cry? Assume the fetal position? Possibly --- but let's play with the hypothetical.
Would we figure out how to go clean out our bank account? Would we spend the evening buying stuff online?
Of course not. In an instant, things would grow crystal clear. We would be with the ones we love most. We would make every moment count.
The hypothetical gets more interesting when we play with the timeframe. What if we had a week left? A month? One year? Five?
Probably, in all of those cases, we would still have great focus and urgency in our living of life. More time might just let us be more strategic.
In any case, money would cease to matter much, except as a means to the end of sharing time with those we love, and perhaps somehow impacting lives and leaving the world a better place than we found it.
So, why don't we do that now?
Jesus tells one of his most confusing parables about the "dishonest manager." He's in trouble, and "cooks the books" to gain friends who can help him after his impending job loss. Jesus' point isn't that dishonesty is good. It's that we should all be so shrewd in understanding the money of this world in just such a way.
We should "use worldly wealth to gain friends for ourselves," remembering that the end goal is eternal life.
What a way to live. It's a way of real freedom.
It's not every day that we encounter a concept that truly has the power to change the way we order our lives. But when Jesus teaches, that is exactly what we find.
What will we do with tonight...tomorrow?
Grace, Peace, and Urgency,
Adam
Today's Small Step: How can you use your specific time, talent, and income to open a door or build a friendship?
Today's Big Idea: How are we like or unlike the "shrewd steward" in Jesus parable? How do we use our resources to influence the world around us?
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