The Temptation Of Materialism by ‘brother bill’
If you find truth and it disagrees with what you think, would you embrace it or defend yourself and reject it? The temptation of materialism.
Change Is Inevitable. Growth Is Not.
A boy sat on the tailgate of his grandfather’s truck, swinging his heels against the bumper.
“What do you think you want to do with your life?” the old man asked.
“Change the world,” the boy said, no hesitation in it at all.
The old man nodded like he’d expected that answer and was already ready for it. “Change is coming whether you lift a finger or not. Seasons turn. Empires fall. You’ll be an old man yourself one day whether you do a single useful thing between now and then. Growth is different. Growth you have to go looking for.”
“How do you go looking for it?” If you find truth and it disagrees with what you think would you embrace it or defend yourself and reject it?
“Would you start by finding out what’s actually wrong with you that you’d like improved more then the world? A newspaperman, G.K. Chesterson was asked what’s wrong with the world? *I am.* That’s the only honest answer we’ve got, and it’s the only one that gives a man anywhere to stand and start fixing something.”
“That’s it? Just — you?”
“Just me. Just you. Every man walking around out there, is living out the habits of a kid nobody checked on. Good ones, bad ones. And most of us spend our whole lives correcting other people’s eyesight before we’ve touched our own.” He tapped the boy on the knee. “*Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; until you remove the plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.*”
“So I can’t fix the world’s eye until I fix mine.”
“You can’t even see the world’s eye until you’ve dealt with your own. *For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.* Whatever’s rattling around in there is running the show whether you’ve noticed it or not. And none of us start clean. *For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.*”
The boy was quiet a minute. “So if nothing else in the whole world got fixed — nothing — except me. How much would actually still be left wrong?”
“Now you’re asking the only question that ever mattered.” The old man swung down off the tailgate. “Here’s the thing nobody tells you: you get to pick one. You can justify the life you’re living, or you can live a life that’s already justified by Jesus Christs sacrifice. You cannot do both at once, no matter how long you practice.”
“Which one am I doing?”
“That’s homework, not conversation. Go find one habit you picked up at nine years old that you’re still defending like it’s scripture. Don’t tell me. Just find it.” Then ask God to help you through His grace to help you in your time of need to overcome it. Then just obey him and his word-As he chastises you into his way.
—So, where are you going to start as God’s truth becomes your spiritual compass on his great adventure?
Blessings brother bill/dad
