My mind wondered to a strange thought the other day. I thought that about if I were a flower in a field of other flowers. I thought that I would definitely want to be the best flower. I would always ensure my petals were at the right angle to catch the sun's rays and I would hog the nutrients in the soil so I could grow. I would shelter myself in stroms and try to catch as much of the enjoyable breeze as possible. I would hope that I could live exist at the best place on the field to overlook astounding scenery for my pleasure, that the sunset would be visible, and maybe there would be mountains and lakes in my view.

And in the end I would hope to....

Darn it... where am I going with this?

Do I hope to be picked my a sweet little girl?

Do I hope to placed in a vase or to wilt in a natural way and again becmoe soil?

There is no happy ending?

Flowers die.

Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless! Like chasing the wind....

(Ecclesiastes)

Temporary. Selfish. Worthless.

Am I drowning in a sea of people deceived into seeking only empty glory and vain satisfaction?

I sat in a mud hut last week with a couple of my teammates and a Kenyan pastor discipling a new Christian. She sat on the floor in tattered clothing. Her house was maybe 3 or 4 meters in diameter with a bed, a couple chairs, a water filter on the wall and a stack of clothing. A broken, batteryless radio served a a table for her Bible which only had the pages from Deuteronomy to 1 Corinthians. Her poverty didn't really break me. She had food, her children were in school, she was getting by. But it really struck me that blessed are the poor. It sounds easy for me to say, well-fed, well-clothed and drowning in oppurtunity. But I didn't say it was easy or best, just, in a way, blessed. You see, she had everyting that I have, maybe more - everything that counts. When life ends and we are put through the fire, 95% of me will burn away, she will stand whole. The first world idle of oppurtunity and prosperity, of stuff and friends and our desire to be unique and successful and attractive are meaningless. Even our desire to good... we must obsess with the King, not only the Kingdom.

As a church and as individual follwers of Christ we NEED to start praying and lessening ourselves. I don't want to die regretting 95% of my existence because it didn't count for anything.

Do you?