Things that Last

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

I am 42. A lot of my friends are around my age, and we are at that age when any youthful beauty we may have had is fading away. Sags and bags are appearing in odd places. Gray hair is emerging from our heads. Yesterday I noticed some little purple veins in my legs that I hadn’t seen before.

When I was younger, I often looked with envy at the pretty girls. I have always been sort of a "Plain Jane." But now their beauty is fading away, and I see that those whose beauty was no deeper than their skin really have nothing left.

There were others who had a lot of money that I sometimes looked upon with awe. I thought they must be better than me in some way. But, as my pastor said recently, "if money is your god, you’re in trouble, because he’s going away, and I don’t think he’s coming back anytime soon." Many people who have had great wealth in the past are losing it now. Wow. They’re just like the rest of us.

What have I put my "stock" in? More and more I am realizing that if I put my hope in anything but God, it can and will be taken away from me at some point. He is the only thing I can hold on to that will never go away.

In these uncertain times, I urge you too to examine your heart and see what you are trying to hold on to. We don’t know what tomorrow holds or if any earthly thing will still be here, but we do know that God will always be. No matter what happens in this earthly life, those of us who know God can have confidence that we will spend eternity with Him.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Philippians 3:7-8a