The Story of the Rich Fool

The following story is one of the many that was taught during a week @ the Sunny Coast. The story is quite bold and anti-cultural in that it challenges our perspectives. It is also interesting as the story contains another story within it.

Someone from the crowd asked Jesus: 'hey, can you tell my bro to divide the inheritance with me?'. Jesus: 'huh :S, who appointed me as judge between you 2?' He then said, 'watch out for all kinds of greed! Life is not all about abundance in $$ slash gadgets.'

Jesus told them this story:

There was a rich man who had an abundance of crops. He thought to himself: 'Hang on, I actually don't have enough space to store it all up! Hmm... what should I do? Ah! This is what I'll do: I'll tear down my smaller barns and build huge ones, so I can store up all my crops. And then I'll be set for my life - I'll take life easy, eat, drink, and chill!'

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night ur life will be demanded from you. Then who will get all this stuff u've prepared for urself?

Jesus, then concluded, saying, 'this is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.'

Ref: Lk 12

This story strikes me with a familiar chord. So often do I get caught up thinking that all there is to life is $$ - watch the numbers in ur back account grow, get good grades --> top job, climb the ladder, etc. Now, $$ and a good career is an awesome blessing from God, so don't get me wrong, but I guess the trick is to be rich towards God through it.

I know in my life, being rich towards God is hard! It's easy to say that you can be rich towards God, but doing it is another matter, entirely!

For me, this story gives me a good reminder, and helps me get my perspectives right.