I'm trying to find reconciliation between the wants and the needs. I know there is nothing wrong with wanting or having, but it seems to create such distraction. If I can be content with having my needs met (which they are, in super abundance) then I should have nothing left but time to pursue the things that will last forever.
Many of my wants are things. Things take time to maintain. Houses; always something, and the bigger they are the more they demand. Clothing; wash, dry, iron, hang up, take to the cleaners, pick up...spending time on clothes. Vacations; fun, usually more work than work itself and way more expensive than the salary that we would earn for the week(s) we are gone. Yards, lawns, flower beds; don't get me started...if only the grass wouldn't grow...if it would just sit there and look nice, and not grow.
You may argue; "Isn't this just part of life?" Is it? The basics, yes. Food, clothing, shelter, rest, and relaxation. When I cross the line from the necessary to the beyond I begin to feel a gloomy sense that the tail is wagging the dog. The time I could be spending investing in relationships and other eternal pursuits I sacrifice to acquiring and maintaining the "wants".
I learn a lot by stepping up to take responsibility for the possessions with which we have been blessed and entrusted. I do it well. I believe in some small way I am being prepared for maintaining the New Jerusalem. But won't God count me more faithful if my time investment is directed at building my family and His people and less on being sure that the yard is fertilized? I don't feel so faithful in the Spirit. I am actually better at focusing on the temporal things.
Measurable results make me feel good about myself. At the end of the day, I can look at my new shirt and justify it thusly; "Nice. Thank you Lord, for the work that provided the money to buy this new thing. I am blessed because I'm righteous and beloved...blah, blah, blah..."
It's a shirt.
Most days I don't see immediate results in the "line upon line" growth in the Spirit. But God's Word promises in the last days He will do a new thing and it will be an accelerated work. That means quick, measurable results in the Spirit. Perhaps progress in my Spirit-life is slow because the distractions are several and time is often wasted.
Today is one of those days that I am having a hard time reconciling the balance sheet: preparing for the the New Jerusalem by tidying the house; really?
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