Discovering What Really Matters in Life as a Young Person

What does it mean to be Rich towards God – Luke12:21

It was during a bible study early last year (2020) when I started to ponder over the qeuestion “what does it mean to be rich towards God”? This question later became a questions of “What is the that important thing in life for me to pursue?“. In this blog post, I will like to share my discovery with you.

It is no news how many people lost huge sums of money while a few others gain an equally large amount since the coronavirus pandemic. Everythnig we have ever learnt as the norm in the financial and business world seem to have been thrown out of the window in 2020. Government officials who are used to having it all under control are now forced to make it up as they go along, the ruler and the ruled have become a victims of the same problem. Millions of people have lost their income source and many more will still lose their jobs as the impacts of the coronavirus unravels.

I personally believe that the highly priased institutions of this world have failed to step in to help many of us during the pandemic. Many lives have been seriously disrupted and the dirution has ripples all the nations on the planet. In fact, some who remianed wealthy and influencial despite the pandemic have also realised that their money cannot buy them their life. and unfortunately many celebrities, politicians, wealthy buininess men and women have lost thier lives just like many others who could not afford a full day’s meal.

As man made safety nets and structures have proved to be undependable, I felt the need to set my focus straight on what is real and dependabe. It has been a trend that every decade the tone of government changes, the business world also changes to welcome practices that favours their business interests. We now live in a world that is forever changing how it operates. We can see this in the way we are used to jumping from one job to the other like we were catching the trian. Why is it that nothing seems to be definite? I have learnt a lot from the story of the “rich fool” from Luke 12 verses 15 to 21 ( from the bible). I want to share with you what I have discovered that dependable, definite and unchanging from this passage.

Luke 12:15-21- 15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

One thing I have learnt over my short life is that it is easier to adopt the lifestyle of people around us but for us to know what is right and true for oursleves, we have to look beyond “what other people around us are doing”. We need to open our heart to discover the truth about our lives on this earth. So I urge you to accomodate the space in your heart to allow this passage to speak to you, especially when all other solutions you know have failed.

From the above passage, here are the answers I have discovered to my question – “what is that one important thing that matters in life, that I should solely care about?”:

• Versee 15 – The value systems of the world are built on the numbers of things you own. You can see this play out in all the stock markets around the world as investors buy and sell stock a lightening speed rate. The world system encourages us to value only the ventures that promises us financial gains or people who seem to have made thier success because they have earned a lot of money, fame and infuence for themselves. As we have seen the losses of many institution and indivuals during the pademic, I am more convinced that my life’s worth can no longer be evaluated by the amount of possessions I have or not have. How then can I value my life’s worth? Read on please…
• Verse 16 – There was a rich man, he got rich from working hard and his hard work paid off as his farm yielded bountifully. This shows me that it is alright to work hard and hard work does pay off. You cannot be lazy and expect to have abundance, however, what this man did with his abundance stood out to me.
• Verse 17 – the rich fool did what I would have done if I were in his shoes; my farm did so well that I have a lot of crops, which I needed a bigger store house to store them. This sounds like a normal things to do. let’s see what the next verse says
• Verse 18 – the rich man decided to pull down the old smaller barn and built a bigger one. This is what most business leaders do, they grow their business and merge it with another to become a group of companies, which later becomes a giant corporation. Notice that the rich man is building a secure storage for his possessions (his crops). I know I am just describing the actions of the rich man but I amfascinated by how heis doing what what many of us will do today – so why is he a rich fool?
• Verse 19 – We can now see further how the rich man came to the conclusion that he has enough to last him many years, as a result, he decided to relax and take it easy. He has planty of grains to sell to last him many years without him breaking a sweat. What I noticed here is that the rich man has decided to place his confidence in the amount of possessions he has stored up in his newly constructed barn. The matter raised some serious thoughts in my heart because I have seen how many rich men/women have placed their confidence in their well paid jobs, and high turnover businesses only for coronavirus to hit and they lost it all.
• Verse 20 – You will notice that (whether you belive it or not) God is the only one who brought the judgement on this man. It is God’s judgement that revealed how foolish this rich mans was to think he can secure his future with the amount of possession he has stored up. God revealed to him that he was dying that very night and all he has laboured to store up for himself will now blong toothers who have not worked for it. No matter how much you have done/ not done, there is a final assessemnt of all we have done in this world.
• Verse 21 – This parable shows how the world system actively encourages a lifestyle that is similar that of the foolish rich man. When we build fortunes for ourselves because we think these furtunes will mean food on our table, protection from illness or unexpected accidents or natural events such as the coronavirus pandemic that the world have never seen before. I also noticed that this man was a fool because his life was centred around his possessions but he has no relationship with God. I saw the lack of relationship with God as a lack of regard for God. We live in a world wehre we prefer to measure the size of our bank balance rather than the quality of our knowlede and trust in God. If you are not a Christian and you are reading this, please don’t be quick to through this out of your mind, ask yourself a question; how many times have you felt empty and unfulfilled despite your well paid job, your influence among your piers and despite the comfort you enjoy when you are in the comapany of your wonderful friends? If you are a Christian the question for you is what is the difference between how you live your life and how other live thier life? Have you personally experienced the benefit of knowing God?

In my search of the answer to the question, I have discovered that whatsover you have in the world, no matter how “sorted” you are, you must not put your trust in it. You may be thinking “Why then should I bother working hard? why should I aim to be the best in my career?”. My answer for you is this – From the passage above, it is safe to conclude that the rich man was not wrong to have worked hard and certainly he is bound to reap the rewards of his hard work according to Galatians 6 verse 7. What he did wrong was to think his hard work and his bountiful posseesion are all there is to life. Beyond your hard work and the rewards of the hard work, anyone who acknowledges God as soverign (Numero Uno) in their life will be judged as a wise person.

If you are a youth or there about and you wish to make all the right choices in life in order to lay a good foundation for your future, whether academically, career wise or socially, please note that after you have tried all your human best, it will be wise of you to learn to discover your life’s purpose in God’s grand plan. Ofcourse, you have to belive that “In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.” The fact that God created the earth, yourself and myself means God has a plan for you and I. As a result of this plan, If all we do is to live a solitary lifestyle where everything is about us, we will only be replicating this same mistake as the rich fool who lived for himself but totally ignored the purpose for which God created Him. You and I will only find true joy and fulfillment when we settle and accept that God exist and has a beautiful plan for our lives.

As a young person, now that you are young is the time to invest your time and resources to discover who God is so that in God you can find the true purpose of your life. I am aware that many young people have become hostile to the fact that God exists, I don’t blame you. If only you can taake time to look back in time and how those who lived with Godly reverence ended up establishing institution that we have all deeply loved such as the NHS, British Red cross, the salvation army, advancement in aducation and many more. Today we face a decline in our reverence for God as well as a stark increase in the number of young people between the age of 10 and 24 choosing to take thier lives because they cannot see the value in living. Many young people have launched into the world to experiment with their lives but they have become stock in the cyle of drugs and sexual extortion and have become addicted in a world that offers them no hope and no future. The less of God we are poclaim in our society, sadly the more hopeless we become as a society and as individuals. This is why I am writing this blog post today, to let you know that God is your best bet in life and nobody/nothing can offer you fulfilled life except God.

I wish you will ponder over the above and say this prayer – “Father God, I know my life is missing something important and everytime I think I have what I needs, I alsways end up being dissapointed. Father Lord, please reveal yourself to me, help me to stop living for myself and show me the truth about yourself. Father Lord, please send me help today”. Amen.

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