One Thing

Now I'm not one of these guys that thinks that the culture embodies truth or that we should listen for the voice of the Spirit in culture. With that disclaimer, there's a popular song on the radio that I think echoes a Scriptural thought that is worth meditating on.

The song is called "One Thing" and the band is called Finger Eleven. Here's a snippet:

If I traded it all,
If I gave it all away for one thing;
Just for one thing

If i sorted it out,
If i knew all about just one thing
Wouldn't that be something?

When I heard that song it made me think of Paul's words to the Philippians (3:7-8):

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I
consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ...

It also brings to mind this short parable Jesus taught in Matthew 13:44-46:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found
it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought
that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine
pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he
had and bought it.

The idea of giving away everything you have is challenging. What would make somebody do that? Take the guy in Jesus' story that finds a pearl so valuable that he literally sells everything he owns to take hold of that one thing. He obviously cherished it more than anything - more than everything else put together. Paul expresses this more clearly in gladly losing everything for Christ - that one thing.

So now let's pose Finger Eleven's question to ourselves. If I gave it all away for one thing, wouldn't that be something? What one thing in your life would you trade everything for? I doubt God is calling you to literally give away everything for one thing. But would you? What does this principle look like in your life?

Thoughts from Ephesians 1

Verse 3-6:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he
chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and
blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus
Christ, according to he purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious
grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

I was reading this and began thinking about the idea of prayer and blessings. We often desire that God would bless us and pray that he would do so. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it occurrs to me that what we often mean when we think about that is material blessings, that God would give us more of the things of this world. More income or stability, more safety, better grades, more comfortable or desirable work, etc.

How often we forget about spiritual blessings. Of course this is kind of ironic because, as we see in this passage, God has already given us "every spiritual blessing" in Christ. He chose us for adoption into His family through Christ, He forgave our rebellion and sin in Christ, and in verse 11 He has given us an amazing and eternal inheritance as members of His household.

We are blessed in the ways that really matter. I wonder why we so easily get distracted with desiring and focusing on material blessings. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but how often do we get distracted by them to the point where our joy disappears without them? Perhaps that's why, in Colossians 3, we're commanded to focus on things above rather than on earthly things. But of course that's easier said then done.

New Approach

I was too ambitious in hoping to make daily posts to this blog. I don't want to drop it, though, so there will be occassional musings related to Scripture and maybe related to developing issues of the Christian worldview. It would be cool to interact with readers in the comments section.