Immovable   

It was a day not unlike any other day. Nothing was unusual about the weather; the
mornings news was bad as it always was. As he was walking to his car parked in the
driveway, the too familiar feeling of despair crept back into his mind. The feeling
had been with him every since he could remember. However, he had gotten used to
ignoring it. Once he got to the office and got busy with the day the feeling would
soon subside, covered up by the work and meetings ahead. He usually worked late and
could get home, eat his warmed up dinner, and get to bed before there was enough time
for the feeling to return.

As he turned the corner out of the neighborhood, the feeling got worse than it
usually did. He knew he just needed to start thinking about the day and the tasks
ahead, which would get rid of the feeling. As he turned each corner, the pain got
worse and worse. He wondered if he would even make it to the parking lot of the
office before having to pull off the road. Ahh, the office was just ahead and in
minutes, he would be in the safe refuge of missed deadlines and a plethora of phone
calls. As he pulled his sports car into a parking space, the tears began to well up
and he sat there sobbing uncontrollably. Regardless of all his success and outward
appearance of having everything together, his life was in shambles. It had been for a
long time. He had only reached out for help from others a couple of times and only
prayed to God in extreme cases. Nevertheless, he had been generally opposed
to reaching out for help from God or anyone. Now he sat in his car with nothing to
show for his life but failed marriages, failed friendships, lonely nights, busy days,
and a half-warmed seat in church on Sunday mornings. God felt as far away as he had
left Him years ago.

Much of what is taught in families, secondary school, college, and business is how to
get ahead, stay ahead, and leave everything else in the dust. We have learned it
well, and most have applied the teaching by leaving everything that could be dear to
them in a huge plume of smoke. After destroying everything, all that is around these
faithful learners is what they have created. Their only friends are others like
themselves who have also destroyed their lives. While trying to create lives and find
a happy existence, they have left out the essential ingredients: God and caring for
others.

Look at this story in the bible, which shows how temporal the material things in life
are and how permanent the spiritual decisions are:

"There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting
his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off
the rich man's table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

"Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of
Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up
and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, "Father
Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my
tongue. I'm in agony in this fire.'

"But Abraham said, "Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good
things and Lazarus the bad things. It's not like that here. Here he's consoled and
you're tormented." Luke 16:19-25 (The Message)

God has an incredible plan for each of our lives, but in order to experience it, our
lives must be squarely focused on Him, and we need to give God complete control.