Good morning. have you ever watched the movie, “City Slickers”? In the movie a New Yorker named Mitch (Billy Crystal) was going through a mid-life crisis and is convinced to join his friends on a western adventure where they would ride horses, round up cattle, and herd them from New Mexico to Colorado. The one in charge of this operation was a grizzled old coot of a cowboy named Curly (Jack Palance).
Naturally, there were various adventures along the way, but the movie culminated when Mitch confronts Curly with the big question: “What is the meaning of life”? Curly tells him that it is all about finding that one great thing that is most important, centering your life on that one thing, and not to worry overly much about everything else.
Not bad advice actually, provided that you choose correctly what is that one thing.
The Apostle Paul, before he met Jesus, was, I think, something like the Mitch character from the movie. He was searching for meaning in life but wasn’t finding it. He had achieved a great deal for his age, but he was far from satisfied. He was driven to do more, to be more, and to find more ways to be recognized and appreciated.
The apostle Paul was once completely lost, and then he was absolutely saved.
He was lost without any sense of direction, and then was found and given purpose and power.
When he found what he needed, Jesus, he spent the rest of his life telling everyone who would listen about the experience.
In the end, his faith in Jesus cost him everything. He who was once wealthy had become poor and totally dependent on others for his needs. He who was once highly esteemed by the powerful had become hunted by those same persons. He who had a life that most would have thought was everything one could wish for, lost that life as he was executed for his faith.
In the end, all he had was his faith. In the end, Paul realized that faith was all he needed. Jesus is that ONE thing.
Paul said to his protégée Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth”. 2 Timothy 2:15
Rightly living in faith, correctly sharing the joy of your faith through the truth of God’s Word, that is the thing that counts.
Vern