Yeshua says: There was a man
who had many possessions.
He said to himself: ‘I will use my riches to sow, plant, and harvest.
Then my storehouses will be full and I will lack nothing.’
This was what he thought in his heart.
That night he died.
Whoever has two good ears will hear.
(Luke 12:16-21)
Death brings an end to the illusion that there is any lasting contentment or happiness to be found in the things of this world.
When I define myself by my “many possessions” or by any visible tangible reality in the external world, I am not “full” and I “lack” everything.
Nothing in this temporal material realm is ever lasting. I can “use my riches to sow, plant, and harvest.” And I can fill “my storehouses” until they are bursting, but I will achieve no security through my efforts. I will “harvest” nothing permanent through any work that seeks to establish my sense of self in this material realm. An identity forged on the horizontal plane is always a fragile insecure thing, constantly in need of support.
When I listen to the words of Yeshua with “two good ears” I perceive the truth in his Sayings. I understand that all life is temporary. The things I achieve or build in this material realm are all fleeting. But, when I hear of the fragile nature of my temporal existence with “two good ears”, it is not a frightening truth. It is a liberating reality.
The impermanence of this material realm opens my heart to the possibility of another dimension of existence that is eternal.
Jesus said,
this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
To know Jesus is to live in tune with the presence of love and light that is the true nature of all life. When I live in touch with this reality I am “full” indeed and truly I know that I “lack nothing.”
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Today I will watch the ways in which I seek to establish a sense of permanence in this tangible world and turn instead to see Jesus who opens me to a quality of life that death cannot destroy.
In A Spacious Place 
3 comments
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March 26, 2018 at 9:36 am
akincross
Interestingly, I received this meditation (below in quotes) today also, from another source I subscribe to: same theme….and then later today to see the tawdry headlines about what is now “normal” in politics…well, there’s where the preoccupation with worldly affairs has led us.
“It does not take much to provide for one’s material life, and yet humans are so busy creating new needs for themselves that they no longer have any time to devote to their spiritual lives. As a result, their material comfort gradually improves, but the psychic and moral state of society deteriorates and we see imbalance that was not present before, with criminal behaviour on the increase.
Materially, in the West, we have never been so well off, but in the deepest sense, this ease does not make people happier. After the first moments of satisfaction, it is neither a new car nor a new house that will meet the needs of their soul and spirit. There is no doubt that people are conscious of this decline in society because they spend their time in meetings talking about ‘making changes’. But all the changes they discuss concern only the material realm. Who considers holding meetings to help people live the divine life? That is why, even if business is improving, human beings are in a process of decline.” ~Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
March 26, 2018 at 9:49 am
Christopher Page
thank you for these good and timely, though sobering, words. Every blessing.
February 15, 2022 at 9:58 pm
swazifictionbook
Surely, by quoting John, you are using a dualistic text to comment on a non-dualistic one. GosThom 63 isn’t soteriological, but transformative for the here-and-now. Elsewhere in this gospel, Jesus makes it clear that the Kingdom is now, and here, not then and there, even if people can’t see it.