Seek first

Only a few decades ago, parents worked hard to make sure that their children would have a better life than they themselves had enjoyed. Better is often defined as more opportunities but also as more possessions.

The result, at least in many parts of the theologically advanced nations, is that we now have an overabundance of material wealth, but we also have a consequent abject poverty in many cases when it comes to spirituality. The mere act of entering into prayer seems to be foreign to many who we meet today, and yet there seems to be an unquenchable thirst for things spiritual today.

It's almost as though we have a good idea about what we want, but we have no idea about how to attain it - especially when it comes to values other than material, tangible and visible riches. The answer is really very simple. In the words of a wise one who once walked in my life, 'You must begin each day by admitting that you are not God - that there is only one God, and you are not it'.

With a healthy relationship of coming to God with an understanding that all we have is a gift, and that our only response is to say thanks, we might well be on the way to understanding that we are not in control, and that despite our greatest wealth, we are still poor, for we are always in need of forgiveness, love, acceptance and happiness - things we cannot touch, smell, hear or see but things that make all the difference.

There is none so blind as those who will not see, so let's set aside the clutter and set out on a quest to truly seek the answer to our every need. Then perhaps, out of the darkness of abundance, we will begin to see with new eyes, and appreciate with renewed fervour the gifts that really matter.