Misplaced Love, by Will

One of the things that I frequently remember from my college days is a quote from a professor we affectionately called Doc, "All sin is misplaced love." For the past few weeks this quote has been on the front of my mind. The things we love the most are the things that we invest ourselves into.

Jesus said, "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6.21). He's talking about investing in things that matter, things that carry eternal value and worth. When I was leading a church as pastor, I had the opportunity to walk through the last months of a man's life with him. He was diagnosed with ALS in late November 2011, and died early in 2012. It was a lot faster than we were expecting, but every Tuesday I would go sit with him in his home and we would talk.

At the time I was only 25, and I was blessed with an experienced pastor who guided me through the process of walking someone towards home. When this man had accepted the reality of death, we began to talk about heaven. As I was preparing to drive to his house for what would be our last Tuesday meeting, I spoke with my pastor friend who pointed out this reality to me.

"In heaven, the streets are paved with gold. The thing that is most precious on earth, the thing that armies have marched for, civilizations have been wiped out for, is used to pave the streets of heaven. No one goes out in the road and breaks it up to hoard asphalt; it's so common place that is worthless. In heaven, the thing we value so much on earth is so common place that it is utterly worthless and so it is used to pave the streets."

What do you love? What are you investing in? All sin is misplaced love, and the things we invest are the things we love the most.

I want to be an Old Testament Scholar, that means have a very solid understanding of Old Testament Hebrew. I've had three classes on Hebrew, and almost a year to study it, but I'm not an expert, honestly at this point I can't even name the seven different verb forms, why? because I'd rather be distracted by YouTube videos (right now I'm hooked on colorblind people receiving enchroma glasses, and these are pretty amazing and emotional).

I want to be a published author, that means research and writing. When I get home at night after a long day at work, all I want to do is sit down and not think about thing strenuous.

I want to pursue my PhD, and more and more I'm realizing the effort that needs to go into this process now. I've read a couple papers for people beginning their programs, and they already have a solid foundation of work done at the beginning. I've got an idea of a topic, but there are re-runs of The Office on.

What is it for you? What is your goal? What is your action? Where is your heart? What do you love?

All sin is misplaced love. The Bible tells us " And He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."'" (Matthew 22.37-39)

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (John 4.8)

Studying Hebrew, is loving God with my mind. Writing is a chance to help people grow closer to God, people I'll never come into contact with any other way. The PhD is an essential to teach college, and that is a chance to impact the world by helping the hearts and minds of students come to a deeper understanding of who God is. By not pursuing these things, by loving other things more than these things, I'm failing to love God, I'm failing to others, and as a result, I'm sinning. My love is misplaced, and that needs to change.

I don't want waste anymore time investing in things that don't matter. I don't want to let my mind be distracted, even by something as moving as people's reactions to seeing color for the first time. I want to fully love God in all things, and I want my life to be invested in things with eternal value. All the treasures of this world pale in comparison to heaven, and I don't want to waste anymore time loving the wrong things.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!