Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Proverbs 19-21: The Secret of Life

He who pursues righteousness and love
   finds life, prosperity and honor
. - Prov. 21:21: NIV

We pursue many things, many of them with great success, but what do we really gain?  The most common definition of prosperity assumes financial wealth.  As we chase after that definition of prosperity, we often find it at the expense of honor and occasionally even our own lives.  Prosperity does not save us as this article yesterday attests:

First published Jul 04 2011 10:40AM 
Police are looking for a man who stole a dump truck from a construction company’s lot in Logan and drove it all the way to Salt Lake City, where he crashed it into a residence.
At about 11 p.m. Saturday, the man crashed the truck into a home at 984 W. Prosperity Drive, Salt Lake City police confirmed. No one was injured in the incident.
The man left a form of identification in the vehicle, but police did not immediately release his identity.
The dump truck was stolen from Spindler Construction, said Logan police Assistant Chief Jeff Curtis. When police inspected the lot, they found the man had taken a semitrailer and rammed it into the fence in the lot, disabling the vehicle. Police say he then took the dump truck, and drove away after running into the first truck.
The damage at the lot and the home is estimated to be several thousand dollars, police said.
“This is really unusual,” Curtis said. “People don’t usually go back into a yard like this to steal a second truck. Then, crashing it into a house is very strange.”

If prosperity is all we pursue, we may find ourselves being hit by the proverbial dump truck of misfortune when we least expect it.  Righteousness and love, there is no fault in that pursuit.  What calamity can rob us of the aftermath of a righteous life or a life filled with love.  If that is what we pursue, it cannot be lost.  It only gets lost when we pursue the end result rather than the true prize.

2010 Post - Proverbs 19-21:  In Our Own Home

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