What Really Counts

What Really Counts

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

Mark 8:36

Our secular world is run by numbers. How many dollars in a checking account? How many viewers of a television program? How many sales for a product? How many fans for a team? Achieving each set of numbers requires sacrifice: time away from family, the investment of your focus, and the passion of your heart. Yet mere numbers can’t bring lasting fulfillment. A big bank account can buy you dinner at the finest restaurant, but often that dinner comes at the expense of a joyful family around the table. Making high sales builds your pride, but consumers are fickle. They’re quick to turn toward the next new thing. They aren’t committed to you, just for being you. They also have expectations. Fans expect wins. Viewers expect drama.

In the Amish community numbers have different meanings. Parents count noses around the dinner table. Coins are counted up and offered to a needy member of the community. Quilters count stitches. Farmers count rows. Gardeners count the jars of produce they can for the winter months.

What kinds of things “count” in our lives? Too often we sacrifice our lives for our work. We may look to the rich and famous as examples, not understanding that their prosperity comes at a great cost.

“Be not afraid when [an ungodly] one is made rich, when the wealth and glory of his house are increased; for when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he counts himself happy and prosperous, and though a man gets praise when he does well [for himself], he will go to the generation of his fathers, who will nevermore see the light,” we read in Psalm 49:16-19 (AMP).

Our family, God’s Word, and our souls are the only eternal things we have. It’s up to you to decide what’s going to count for you.

Dear heavenly Father, today I long to live in the way that counts. I want my life to add up, Lord, and I know looking toward You, toward eternity, is the only way that can happen.