WHAT MATTERS MOST
My eyes scanned the room as I stood at the door. Was I missing anything? I paused for a moment. Then the reality hit me. I may never see any of this again. Taking a deep breath, I whispered a prayer, and said goodbye to everything I had accumulated for decades. Closing the door, I walked away from it all.
This past week fire ravaged Sonoma County, where I live, for the second time in three years. Many of us were without power for days and 180,000 were evacuated. Fortunately, the inferno is now under control. But the last few days have been skittish, to say the least.
Although our experience was minimal compared to some, at three AM Sunday morning we were awakened by a mandatory evacuation alert. Throwing everything we deemed essential into our van, we headed out, unsure of our destination. It’s interesting how emergencies have a way of revealing our priorities. We grabbed some photo albums, jewelry, my computer and our dog. A friend shared that she witnessed a neighbor loading a TV into his car. Another person grabbed a box of cereal!
As I walked away from our home, the reality hit me that our house might be gone when we returned. Any vestige of false security was stripped away in an instant, a stark reminder that everything this world offers is temporal. I Corinthians 7:31 sums it up. "The world as we know it is quickly passing away." In Matthew 16:26 Jesus uttered perhaps the most profound statement in human history, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" Nothing...absolutely nothing of this world will endure.
Everything I owned could literally have gone "up in smoke" in a few moments. Thank God our family and home were spared. But let's not wait for an emergency to jolt us into the reality of what matters most. When our time comes to exit this planet, we'll leave everything behind, including our "earth suit". We can only bring with us what we've “sent ahead” spiritually. And in the end, that's what matters most.
Look in the mirror and ask, “What really matters most to me?”
How can I adjust my life to match those priorities?
“Lord God, show me what matters most in life and reorient me to live accordingly.”