an empire or a string of pearls?

How do you envision the ultimate purpose of your life?  In all honesty are you trying to "build an empire"?  Or are you creating a string of pearls?

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It occurred to me this past week that many (or most...or maybe just about all) of us men are empire builders.  Somewhere inside we are trying to acquire a fortune, build a winning business, create a successful career.  Like some kind of carry over from an earlier time we think life is all about creating our own personal empire.  We can so easily give ourselves to the acquisition of influence, power, and things.  So much of this goes way beyond what we need in terms of healthy ambiition to meet our practical needs.  I think we tend to measure our worth by the worldly worth of what we own and the worldly reach of our earthly power.  We were reminded this weekend at the Men's Retreat that life really is all about relationships: first with God and then with people.  A thought that struck me was that it's better to look at life as a string of pearls than an empire to build or conquer.  Each pearl is a day and each day we begin again to see a pearl formed.  Within the constraints of the day we have a new beginning and a wide range of opportunity to look to God for our worship, peace and fresh purpose.  God can fill the day with unimaginable joy and experience and as trials inevitably come...He'll show up then, too.  But each night we can place that pearl on the string and look to the next day.  Rather than filling the unknown of the future with our own puny ambitions, we can walk day by day with the Lord.  In this way I think we'll see Him build His empire through us!  And one day, when the last pearl is strung, we'll step across to see that true Empire.

 

1 Corinthians 7:29-31 I do want to point out, friends, that time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don't complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple —in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith