Korean Bananas and Jesus

My friend from China is moving to North Carolina from Pittsburgh. She is in the flurry of packing boxes galore. She told me this morning that she realized she has nine sets of china. Each piece needs to be packed with care. That's a LOT of pieces!

Then she told me about Korean bananas. She said there's a Korean saying: "Koreans always eat bad bananas." She explained that they always eat the most ripe bananas first. While they are eating over-ripe bananas, the others are also becoming over-ripe.

She applied the "Korean bananas" to her packing. She said she has been saving some of her china sets for something special rather than using them in the fear that some might be broken. She said, "I'm going to start using all my china and just enjoy it. What's the point of just leaving it on the shelf safe when life is so short?"

Jesus said something very similar and even more practical: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19 - 21)

It is a matter of perspective. Is our frame of reference here and now? OR do our eyes focus heavenward while we walk through life? Where and what do we treasure?

It becomes a matter of the heart. Simply put, "where your treasure is is where your heart is, too"!

If this world isn't our final destination, if we are just "passing through" on our way to God's Town (heaven), if we are really citizens (ultimately) of heaven - then our focus changes, our treasures change, our values are restored to where they should be! Jesus said it, "... where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Learning to treasure the right things is a process of restoration. It's not where our hearts naturally go! Our sinner hearts long to heap up treasures on this earth. When God begins His restoration in our hearts, then what we treasure changes. We can walk through life without all the "baggage" of stuff that makes us so weary and leaves us so empty. We may still have nine sets of china or whatever (tools, computer gadgets, whatever you value and stockpile) but we see those "treasures" differently.

Koreans don't have to eat bad bananas. The solution to eating bad bananas is making better choices. We don't have to hang onto all the stuff we accumulate and call treasure. We have to make better choices. In the end, it's the condition of our hearts that matters most!

Disaster, Disaster Everywhere! What Is One to Think?

The evening news has the story of a murdered pregnant Marine in North Carolina. It also has the developing story of O.J. Simpson and his legal troubles which seem to be mounting by the moment. Former Olympic star and five-time medal winner Marion Jones not only has lost her medals but is now facing 6 months in jail, 2 years probation and 800 hours of community service. At least she took it on the chin like an adult and stood before the cameras and said she respected the decision of the court and judge today and hoped that others would learn from her mistakes.
Earlier today I was in the grocery store and found sad pictures of Britney Spears splashed on the front page of various magazines with even sadder headlines.
This world is a terrible place. People lie and cheat and steal. People do all they can to get away with even murder. Do we hear and see so much that it becomes commonplace? Does it even shock us anymore?
Is there outrage that the murder of a pregnant Marine is only one count of murder rather than two even though she was over eight months pregnant? (I had one of my sons at six months pregnant, and he is certainly a living human being - and was then as well!) Will the laws of North Carolina (criminal code) change to include the charge of murder for killing an unborn child?
What a mess we and our world are in! Talk about restoration - God's loving, restoring grace has never been more needed than in our world on this cold January 2008 evening.
Restoration begins one heart at a time as God works! God's restoring Gospel is the only hope for our messed-up lives and world.
When those in my home and my sphere of influence see God bringing restoration to my heart and that restoration beginning to overflow in my actions toward both God and others, then that little light of God's restoration begins to push back the darkness. Then the process of restoration spreads one heart at a time!