Foolish Pursuits

There has been much written recently about the pursuit of the American dream clashing with the pursuit of the cross. Men such as David Platt and Matt Chandler and many others have spoken extensively on this subject and I agree fully with them on the topic. Basically the message is that the American Dream is that we work hard at promoting ourselves and making something of ourselves, but the message of the cross is dying to self and making much of Christ with our lives. I love the message these men are preaching and I "like" all the post by these guys on facebook and re-tweet them regularly. The reality is however that while I like their message I have a hard time living it. This blog post isn't as much a deep new insight that you'll read and walk away from feeling challenged and talk about how smart I am. Instead I hope that it serves more as a confession of where I have fallen short of the pursuit of the cross.

The question I regularly challenge myself with is "what am I pursuing?" There are season's of my life where I can confidently say my pursuit is Jesus and His cross, but far to often my idol is comfort. I position myself to provide me and my family with the most comfortable lifestyle possible and still feel good about myself. I say the right things but my actions don't always match my words. I know in my head that Jesus came that I might have life to the fullest but a saving account and a retirement plan look pretty appealing too. My happiness to many times depends on Jesus and money, or Jesus and safety, or Jesus and success, or Jesus and a plan, or Jesus and health, or Jesus and fill in the blank. I want to be completely satisfied with Jesus. Matt Chandler said this "The most moronic thing that happens in our culture is that we already have stuff that does not satisfy us and so what we believe is that if we can get more of what does already not satisfy us we will be satisfied...now that is absolutely foolish". Lord free me from the pursuit of meaningless idols that lead to disappointment and emptiness.