What Is Valuable

The whole point of being a pick-pocket is to be able to take something of value from someone without them knowing it, until it's too late.

Imagine standing on a subway (not the store, the story wouldn't make sense if you were standing on a building that sells 6 inch meatball subs) going to visit a family member or friend in Thailand. You're all alone except for the other 30,000 people in the 30 square foot area. The car comes to an abrupt stop and everyone lurches forward. The doors open and 14,385 of the 30,000 people need to get out. In the middle of all the "excuse me's" and "my stop's" people push by you as if you were a post with no sense of feeling.

When you get to your stop you gracefully push through the human wall and find your way to the street. It's then that you realize that your wallet has been taken from your back pocket or out of your purse. Twenty-seven credit cards, each with a $20,000 limit are gone – so are the thirty $100 dollar bills you had in the secret compartment – so is the ATM card that you wrote the password on the back of so you wouldn't forget it. The pick-pocket just got away with ¾'s of a million dollars(use your imagination) and a bunch of other stuff.

Panic.

What is valuable is gone.

There is no hope of finding the thief…

Your visit to Bangkok is ruined.

What have we allowed the enemy of our souls to take from us?

The economy is tight and he brushes by us lifting generosity without us even noticing.

There are a lot of issues that aren't the way they should be and now we can't find any asemblance gratitude.

It seems that we can't find the passion for Christ that we used to have.

Where did my hunger for the Word go?

Just then you notice a squirrely looking punk running from you down the road. "Stop that thief!" You call out. The punk turns his head around to grin at you and runs square into a man, bouncing off him like a ball off a block wall. The man takes hold of the runner's ankles and holds him upside down shaking him as if he were a dirty throw rug.

On the cement falls all of those things that were yours, the money, the credit cards, the picture of you on the top of Mt. Everest - and there's the generosity, and the gratitude, and the passion, and the hunger for the Word.

You thank the man for stopping your thief. He smiles and says, "My Father told me Lou (that's his street name) was after you again."

You start to bend down to pick up the stuff at his nail scarred feet when he lightly lifts you back up before you can get hold of anything and says, "My Father sent me to keep this guy from robbing what is of most value to you. He says you can only take back what you can't afford to lose."

There you are on the streets of Bangkok with Jesus, who's holding Satan upside down by the ankles, and a pile of stuff that used to be yours.

What's really of value that has been robbed from us?

What would we choose to claim back?

What would God choose for us?

Would God and I agree on what was most valuable?

Sunday we'll sew together the last banner.

Waiting for Spring,

Pastor Dave