Something lighter

I realized I've been posting some pretty weighty topics lately, and I wanted to lighten things up.  I have been assigned to write a list of  "10 things I love about Jackson." Here is my working list as of now, with explanations to come (once I have finished studying for my exams.)

Hospitals

Lemuria

FOOD

Reservoir

Diversity

Weather

Riverside Dr.

Fondren

Coffeeshops

Downtown

If you have anything you'd like to add, let me know! This is a work in progress! 

Treasures

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:19-24

I heard this verse taught this evening at MCF, and it struck me in ways that it never has before. I guess that could be proof that the Bible is living and active, eh? :)

Our treasures are our desires, those things we really want.  What is it you really want? Or in a more pointed question, what bugs you the most when you can't have it?  The answers to these questions are your true desires.  How convicted I was when I realized that the things I treasured most in this life were things like

grades,

sleep,

and recognition. 

How insignificant these things seem when written out, but they are some of my most apparent desires; I get frustrated and stressed out when I can't make the grades I want,  I get annoyed when my alarm goes off every morning, and I am deeply offended if I feel like I am ever not receiving the recognition I earned.

How small-minded of me.

What was even more humbling was when I realized that I get more frustrated when I make a B rather than an A than I do when I "miss" God by neglecting Bible study or prayer. Have I really made grades more important than God?

How idiotic of me.

The world is not working in our favor. It is so very very easy to let school, realtionships, money, and pleasure take precedence in our lives, and to keep God on a back burner... treating our relationship with Him like a pot we only tend when it starts to scorch. (Cooking analogy, bear with me.)


In the grand scheme of things, grades don't matter. Sleep doesn't matter. Recognition doesn't matter. Relationship statuses don't matter.  Plans don't matter. Anything in this life doesn't REALLY matter. 


How CAN anything seem like a big deal when compared with the fact that the

perfect, holy, God of the universe

loved us enough to send His perfect, blameless Son

to die an awful death

and to suffer the condemnation and abandonment we deserve

 just so that we could have the opportunity to be in a

relationship with Him again.



Jesus called us to a life of black and white - we cannot serve two masters.

I pray that I will treasure God and my relationship with Him as much as I treasure my grades.