My All in All

By Rev. Dean Davenport, Senior Pastor

In his book, The Best Is Yet to Come, John Kieschnick tells the story of Bob Buford. He writes,
“Bob Buford owned a cable television company, and God richly blessed his business. Wealth and power, however, didn’t fill the hole in Bob’s life. He had a nagging sense of emptiness, so he went to a psychiatrist. Bob shared his dilemma, and the psychiatrist told him, ‘Bob, I want you to go home and take out a piece of paper and a pen. Draw a box, and in that box write the words that describe the most important thing in your life.’

What do you suppose Bob wrote in His box?
What would you write in your box?
What is your highest priority in life?

Before we put our answers in the box, let’s reflect on our thoughts in relation to Bob’s emptiness. As Christians, we understand that wealth and power don’t fill our emptiness or give us the security and happiness that Bob was seeking. As our faith grows and we grow in our discipleship lives, we learn that true riches have nothing to do with money. We can have very little money and be very rich or be very wealthy and be destitute. True riches have to do with a right relationship with Jesus Who, through His death and resurrection, brings us happiness, contentment, joy, love, peace, forgiveness and life everlasting.

Material things and money are temporary, at best. We have experienced just a little glimpse of that over the past week or so with the falling stock market. The value of investments really took a beating. No matter how much money we may have, we have no way of guaranteeing that it can be kept safe and secure. Money can be lost, stolen, or its purchasing power lost through inflation. Our property can be burned or robbed.  ll material things can be gone quickly. Even if our material things stay with us, we will eventually leave them, because, at the end, we can take nothing with us.

God had blessed Bob materially, but he was still feeling empty with no purpose. Through faith, we understand that what we need most is a relationship with Jesus; Who is the only Person Whose love and forgiveness can give us all that we need. So, in response to the psychiatrist’s question as to what the most important thing in our life is, our answer in the box is