Pastor Mark's Musings
It's interesting what you find during the process of packing and moving your household. A couple of weeks ago, while I was packing my home office, I ran across three files of articles I had saved from various magazines back in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Of course, I couldn't just throw them away, or pack them without looking at them and reading many of them (probably why it has taken me so long to get everything in the old house packed-up). One of the articles, from a 2004 Harper's Magazine, was about Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation. This quote from the article really caught my attention:
"Consider that Bill Gates, whose personal net worth has soared, recently, over $40 billion, made his money in the 22 years or so since he founded Microsoft. If we presume that he has worked 14 hours a day on every business day since then, that means that he has been making money at a staggering $500,000 per hour, or about $150 per second. This means, in turn, that if Bill Gates saw or dropped a $500 bill on the ground, it wouldn't be worth his time to take the four sections required to bend over and pick it up."
The article failed to mention that Gates has been extremely generous with his money, in one instance, giving $1 billion to fight childhood diseases. Many of our extremely wealthy are not nearly as generous as Bill Gates.
Reportedly, Gates grew up in the United Church of Christ, but apparently, he is not part of our church family as an adult. He is reported to have said, "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion isn't very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on Sunday morning."
For most folks, Gates' wealth is beyond comprehension. But like him, we too are subject to the pressure of allocating time, and each day must make decisions about how we will "spend" those 24 hours. We work long hours in a business, or hospital, or on a farm, or at home. We need to eat, sleep, and get our kids or grandkids to and from all their school and sports activities. Every minute must go for essentials, or so it would seem.
It takes time to nurture our faith in God; time to read the Bible; time for prayer and meditation; time to attend an adult class; time to listen to others and to share with them our faith in our brother, Jesus. And it seems for most of us, when we ask how much it will "cost" us to spend that time, the answer all too often comes back, "I can't afford the time right now."
It all boils down to priorities. And because we were created in the image of God, and for relationship with God and each other, our faith activity is not optional, but essential; it is the very lifeblood of our lives, both present and future.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Mark
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. --- Ephesians 3:14-21