Can't Serve Two Masters

"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight. Luke 16: 13-15

Today’s Reading 2 Samuel 12-13; Luke 16

I had a chat conversation with a good friend of mine today. We were talking about Ethiopia and in the middle of her typing I interjected with some comment about Ethiopia haven’t a gang of Christians.

She was already typing the same thing. Shut up and listen Clarence…

I’ve never been one to worship money like the Pharisees but I definitely have dealt with my own idols. I used to worship at the altar of the mind.

My own mind… How arrogant is that? Or perhaps insecure…

Two sides of the same coin really.

Here’s what I mean by that. Have you ever met someone who always had to be right or always had to come up with the answer to the random questions that invariably come up in casual conversation? Aren’t those people insufferable?

Yep that was me. And you know what. It’s really tiring. It’s impossible to know everything right? So imagine how much energy it would require to seem like you do.

So silly.

But I’m sure you’re thinking how is being a know-it-all anything like what Jesus is talking about above with the two masters stuff.

Well it interfered with my relationship with God.

When I was having doubts and troubles with things related to Christianity several years ago much of it was due to what other “Christians” had done. But another part of it was that there were so many things that I had questions about. There were so many things that I didn’t understand.

That scared the hell out of me.

So I went on this quest to try to answer some unanswerable questions:

What is “sin” and what causes it? How does God “judge” us? How does He determine if we go to heaven or hell? If Jeffrey Dahmer is in heaven where is Gandhi? Is he in hell? Why? That doesn’t seem right.

This troubled me a WHOLE lot until I realized how the passage above applied to me. By trying to answer these questions I was trying to be God.

That job is way above my pay grade.

Once I realized this it became clear that I was totally out of balance. I am not God. That is an arrogance that I hope I don’t fall into again in the future.

So I decided to let God be God. I would listen to Him for guidance as to how I can best do me. After all, doing me is enough work anyway right?

So whatever your vice may be, take a look at it. Be honest with yourself. Maybe the reason why you aren’t moving as fast as you like is because you are getting in your own way.

If you have my problem you might end up like this guy.