Who am I living for?

Over the holidays, I was thinking about the Magi who traveled to Bethlehem, led by the bright star and awaiting the Savior, only to lay their treasures down at the feet of a newborn baby as an offering of praise. And it occurred to me that, just as the Magi, we must lay our treasures down at our Savior’s feet.

 

Oh, how I yearn for the times when six minutes under the stars and stillness balmed. Times when I was so close to God I could step outside at night, look up, and feel peace deep and love wide and time stopped.

 

Have I forgotten the wonder of our Savior’s birth? Do I hold enough space in my heart for him? Have I laid down my treasures at the feet of Jesus?

 

As we enter the New Year, I would like to ask the question to you and to myself, “Who am I living for?” 

 

The honest answer for me is myself. My goals. My plans. My future. While God has stretched me to give more and more of myself away in service as an offering of praise, I still find myself tripping on, well, myself. 

 

It’s not an accident that Jesus was born in a manger, humble and low, and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Our lives are meant to be fulfilled in full abandonment to the Savior. 

 

With hearts made for eternity, we search for fulfillment in worldly things — accomplishments, family, education, work, material possessions — without ever being sated. We cannot fill that vastness with the world anymore than we can number the stars.

 

We are made, it seems by design, with a God-shaped hole that is filled only by the humble and lowly things.

 

My lofty goals, my lofty dreams, my lofty plans — they are all humbled at his feet where I realize to live in Christ is to lay down my treasures as an offering of praise. It was never about me.

 

As Christians walking through this world of ambition and material comforts, we can become so comfortable with the status quo and distracted from the truth of the gospel. A new year is timely for reflection on the core tenants of faith.

 

+ The gospel is for everyone. Rich and poor. Young and old. Free and in prison. In God’s economy, the last will be first and the first will be last. 

+ God is love. Love conquers all things.

+ We are made to love God, just as he first loved us. The world cannot fill our God-shaped holes.

+ It matters greatly that the posture of our hearts is love.

+ We are created, by design, to love and to care for one another, just as Christ loved us and loved the church.

+ We die to ourselves and gain eternal life when we accept Jesus.

+ As offerings of praise and thanksgiving, we lay down our treasures at the feet of Jesus. Things we have cherished above him. Material comforts. Selfish ambition. Worldly desires. Jesus knows it’s hard for us to lay down our treasures. He invites us to abandon ourselves to the greatest mysteries of heaven anyway.

 

None of this is to say that I shouldn’t be pursuing my dreams or using the talents that God has given me. Each and every one of us is created to pursue our passions and to contribute something only we can contribute to the world.

 

Yet have my passions and goals overtaken my love for the Savior? Have I idolized self and selfish ambitions? Do I focus on myself above others? Do I think about myself before I think of God? Truth bomb.

 

I’ll be looking up at the stars a lot more this year. When I do, I will remember a tiny baby in Bethlehem and the Magi who came to lay their treasures at the feet of the Savior — then remember to lay down my treasures, too.