Chart A New Course

Jesus said "For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?" A question that should seek an answer in your life. What are your gains in this world? Are you tied up solely in things of this world? What dominates your thinking? Is it something that always in some ways, leads back to making gains in this world. Either gaining popularity, gaining a better position at work, gaining a bigger house, or a newer car, or more material possessions? Ask yourself this question. Is buying something for yourself the only thing that makes you feel good, even if only for a little while? We are a culture that revolves around consuming things, and consuming requires two things besides money, time and energy. Maybe the payoff for that investment in time and energy is not getting you the returns you expected. For a lot of people the pursuit of the their dreams is defined by the secular world and culture. Unfortunately it is devoid of the One that can fulfill your dreams. Perhaps now is the time to chart a new course. Feeling empty and unsatisfied is not necessarily a bad thing. In the realm of spirituality it means that the time has come to investigate other avenues, if something is not working, try something new. The real tragedy that we witness is that "the world" gives us what we think are keys to open the door to a life worth living, but when we stick the key in, it doesn't open. So we frantically keep sticking keys in, many times doing things that are very self destructive, drugs, alcohol, pornography, and numerous addictions. We also turn to these secular "self help" gurus who don't have the answers either. Don't think that you were the first to come up empty over worldly things. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, we see the author who was rather successful, and had pretty much what he desired, lament over all of it. " Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." He writes that every thing is meaningless, that pleasure is meaningless that work is meaningless, riches are meaningless, advancement is meaningless, and this was written 170BC a very long time ago. He writes " this only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes." One final thought: our belief in salvation is tied to the most important thing in our lives, our happiness. We believe that we will be eternally happy. All pain, sorrow, worries, anxieties vanish replaced with joy and love. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote "Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.” Chart a new course today.