Find Your Place

"Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels he is 'finding his place in it' while really it is finding its place in him."   C. S. Lewis

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21 (italics mine)

How easy it is to find my security in the things of this life. 
Just this week I've been tempted to find my fulfillment, rest, security, and satisfaction in each of the following:

• The right job
• A sufficient income
• A satisfactory performance in a responsibility
• A relationship

Each of these is smack in the middle of where I live, and I walk through the sunny terrace of each of these on some days, and rush through the blowing rainstorm of these on other days.
And so I strive (often and unconciously) to find a way to make myself recline in protected comfort (maybe a screened in, climate controlled porch?) among them:

• a secure job that fulfills me in the areas I feel gifted in, preferably conflict free
• a stable income (not too posh, of course!) that provides regular dental visits, yearly vacations, and reliable cars
• a performance in my calling that merits respect and admiration, "for God's glory, of course!" I quickly tag on
• sweet fellowship (sans conflict!) in my relationships that fosters belonging, memories, and lasting joy

Is any of these things wrong in and of themselves?
Absolutely not.   Each can be a gift from God, bestowed in His wisdom to our stewardship.
Their toxin is released only when they slowly take hold of us instead of us holding loosely to them.
(See Lewis' quote at the top.)

My joy, purpose, identity, and fulfillment need only and always to be rooted deeply in God.
This eternal orientation will overshadow and conflict at times with things temporal.
But this is the design of God...how it ought to be.

How do I know if I'm being 'woo-ed' by the world? In danger of having it settling in comfortably as it 'finds its place in me'?

1.  Am I resistant to change in any of the above areas, refusing to consider God's glory may be better seen without the right job, sufficient income, satisfactory performance, or desired relationship?
2. Am I inflexible within these areas, demanding and insisting on my version of how they need to look?
3. Has it been a long time since I prayed with any real fervor about the details of any of the above?
4. Am I impressed with this world's latest trinkets? (Technology, Entertainment, People, Stuff?) or am I impressed with God's glorious grace in the gospel, and how I can spread it, live it, learn it further?

 I shame myself.  I spend too little time at the foot of the Cross and too much time at the shrine of Elaine's pet treasures.

My heart needs God.  And so I cry out to you, Lord....

(How I rejoice that all I need is found in the glorious truth of the gospel!!
News you'll not find in this world's newspaper, but will be HEADLINED daily in the next. )

 Dear God, I need the Holy Spirit to enable me to love You as I desire, to keep myself from 'grabbing hold' of this world too tightly, of settling into its carnival of thrills only to miss the peaceful oasis of resting in You! Complete this work in me, I pray.     ~Amen