“Having it all”, is to me the most ridiculous idea. People don’t realize that every asset becomes a liability with time and everything you introduce into your life has problems. Some people think of this as having glory by worship of men through whatever means they imagine to find it. Some people think that Honor is what is prized by bieng a “good person” or being notable. Some people seek a memorial of their life, which is to seek immortality. Some even seek after their own means of eternal life such as Stephen Hawking who wants to download his brain to a computer. The irony that I see in that is if a computer could hold his brain then that makes that computer his god…
If you have thought of what “having it all” means to you, which one of these does it boil down to? Is it changing your body? Then you want glory because you want to usurp God’s power. Is it wanting to support people who are sinful? Then you want honor because you want notoriety. Is it picketing for political change? You’re seeking immortality, because you want a legacy. You could have everything you really want inside like Naaman, but just like him instead of “wash and be clean” you want to do some great and notable deed. It’s our selfish pride that makes the labors of this life perish, but it’s not in thinking low of yourself to find humility; however, true humility is not considering yourself.
In Romans 2:7 the things men seek on this earth will burn up one day, but it promises:
“To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:”
The question as I read it becomes, “What level of problems do you want in your life?” Many single men want to be married and married men miss being single; however, divorced men want to be married again, because it’s not good that man should be alone, but it’s easier to be single than married yet a lot less fun. With being married comes the honey-do list, the necessity of getting home, sometimes you don’t feel at true ease in your home, and the problems of the other person. Being on a team is less simple, but it’s good to have someone to help you up. Having a great paid job might mean missing some other things that you cherish like family time, me time, and even God forbid church time. You might be so affluent as to miss out on fellowship with believers and that can hurt your relationship to God, while you lose sight of your work being given by and a form of worshipping God. Then he loses your worship as you get too involved in worshipping the creature more than the creator.
Everything you add to your life will add problems, which is why great gain does not give contentment or godliness, but godliness with contentment is great gain… I wonder if that was written somewhere? (shh, it’s 1 Timothy 6:6)
I have been guilty of trying to overtake humility with pride even since beginning this blog, because I focused on myself. It comes up subtly in thinking; “I don’t have enough”, “I wish my life could be different”, or “something/someone would make me happy”. I could wish to have paid work, but I have an abundance of work, I could wish to change mistakes, but maybe I needed to learn from them, and I could wish to . This is why “having it all” is not found in what, but whom.
This is why “Having it all” is found in Jesus Christ. Not because life doesn’t get hard, but that I have a father who owns the cattle on a thousand hills… in fact he owns the hills. Part of godliness is seeing things not as we see them, but as God see’s them in the end of each thing. Contentment or “having enough” is the right attitude, but without true godliness you have no place for that hope. Similarly, seeking to build these things against God’s commandments in your own life reveals a lack of faith.
You can have it all even if you don’t have all the things, because you can have eternal life today. How do you get eternal life? By believing first that you’re a sinner and need a savior, by believing that Jesus Christ came to earth to save sinners and that by believing in his death, burial, and ressurrection you can have eternal life. How so? By God putting his righteousness to your account and he having taken the punishment for your sin it’s already paid for. All you have to do is believe and be saved. So simple, but it does mean that we can’t be the masters of our salvation. The amazing part is how relieving that truth can be for it’s not in man to earn by labor, but we work out of a position of rest.

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