Have you ever stood in the line at the grocery store and noticed all the magazines in the racks? There is everything to choose from –  about how to decorate your home, all the fad diets about how to lose 30 pounds in just a few weeks (maybe exaggerating), and about how we should be taking care of ourselves in a healthy way.  But, what fascinates me is all the magazines about “celebrities!”  People want to know what other people are about, what they are up to, and even about their relationships with others – whose married to who and who is best friends with who, and whose kids belong to whomever, etc…

In 1 Corinthians 3, St. Paul warns the people of thinking they are so wise by keeping up with the times of today.  In fact, in ‘The Message,’ Eugene Peterson translates verse 19: “What the world calls smart, God call stupid.”  In other words, it is a waste of time to focus so much on what other people are doing.  What is important is what you are doing – how you are spending your time, what relationships you are in – especially your relationship with God!

Here is the thing…once you think you have God all figured out, you will quickly realize that you don’t have Him figured out at all.  There is so much to learn about our heavenly God, we could spend hours in a relationship with Him and still not understand things.  But, for me that is what intriguing – the more time you spend in the Word of God, the more you want to know.

There is no honor in knowing someone who thinks they own the world.  However, there is great honor knowing that your relationship with Christ is gold and that it can never be taken away from you.

Let us pray, Gracious God, we give you thanks for the joy of knowing you and being in a relationship with you.  Only you can give us what we truly need in a friend.  Help us to keep up with you – not the ways of the world.  In your name we pray, Amen.