As I was driving down the road the other day it occurred to me how much time and money people put into investing for their financial future.  Quite often we spend so much of our time worrying about our retirement that we lose site of two important things.  One of these leads to the other. 

     First, what about today, the here and now?  Most of us have families and friends that are a gift from God.  Our life is a gift from God.  If we set that gift aside to worry about tomorrow then we are abusing that gift.  If you were given a gift certificate with the expiration date unknown, would you set it aside to spend later or use it and enjoy it now before it expired?  What about the opportunities presented to us to help others and lead others to Christ?  Instead of thinking how can I help this person today, we are blinded by how is this going to affect me tomorrow.  Maybe it involves financial help that we are storing away for later or requires some of our time, which we need ourselves to get things done and ready for another day. 

     Second is this ~ have you given any thought to preparing for your spiritual retirement?  How we spend our time today determines how we will spend our eternal future.  I know most of you believe in heaven and life after death but do you really ever give it much thought?  Or are you like many people that just take it for granted that you are going to heaven?  Do you take it for granted that when you retire you will have enough money to enjoy life?  No, you set aside IRA’s and savings bonds and investments to insure that you will be taken care of.  How long will your retirement last?  Lets say you retire at 65.  I guess the average person lives to be, what, about 85?  I don’t know statistics here but I am going to give you 20 years of healthy living.  20 years to travel, relax, tend your garden, fly your rc airplanes, play golf, fish, what ever you plan on doing to enjoy the rest of your life.  20 years.  Remember that number.  Now think about this ~

     A man picks up a grain of sand and takes a step.  That step is equal to 10,000 years.  He takes another 10,000 year step, then another.  He continues with each step equaling 10,000 years and he proceeds to climb Mt. Everest.  At the top he drops that grain of sand and turns around and comes down the mountain (each step 10,000 years) and picks up another grain of sand and brings it back up the mountain.  He does this for every grain of sand on every beach, at the bottom of every ocean, in every desert.  You get the idea.  Well this is the beginning of eternity.  The BEGINNING!! 

    Now lets get back to that other number.  What was it?  Oh yeah, 20 years.  Now which time period should we be the most concerned about?

    Unlike our retirement years where we can save a dollar here and there, we can’t set aside a few good deeds, kind words said, one hour on Sunday mornings spent in church, prayers said in haste, etc to guarantee a comfortable spiritual retirement.  That price has already been paid for us.  Christ paid it when he died on the cross for us.  He did that so that we could retire with Him in heaven for eternity!  The only thing he asks (commands actually) from us is to have faith.  But faith isn’t something we put away into a savings account or a safe deposit box or under the mattress to save for this ‘retirement’.  It is something to be lived, TODAY!  So how we live today is going to affect our financial and spiritual retirement, but which is the one we should be the most concerned about?

     Read the parable of the rich fool, Luke 12:16-21 -  And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."  

Think about it and start investing today.  

May God Bless You With Abundant Riches!