This morning I decided to do some hunting.  I got my gear together and kept a sharp eye out.  I wasn’t hunting for deer, but for cell phones.  I was taking a look at different cell phones to see which one might peak my interest.  As I searched for the perfect trophy phone I started to get caught up in the “desire-for-the-best”.  I had fewer requirements before I started, but the more phones I saw the longer my “must-have” list grew.  There were phones with internet, mp3 players, extra storage, video, and television capabilities.  “I want that one.  No, wait, there’s a better one.”  But the prices went up and I started to ponder what I really needed.  Did I need all those extras?   

It’s easy to get caught up in wanting the best.  It seems even easier just after Christmas when you see what cool tech devices other people recently acquired.  But our search as Christians isn’t to acquire the top-of-the-line phone, car, game system, house, etc.  Those are only temporary and most will be replaced by something better in the next three months.  Our search is to be for godliness.  1 Timothy 6:6-7 says this, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.”  I encourage you to read all of 1 Timothy 6.  There’s quite a bit of good advice to satisfy your “desire-for-the-best” – not the best phone, but the best life you can live in 2010.

Partly because I have been working on a sermon this week on the Fall in Genesis 3 and the entry of sin into human existence, and partly because of watching the ongoing tragic events on the little island if Haiti, I have thought a lot about sin, suffering, and trusting God in the middle of evil.  Every time an event like this earthquake happens, the old questions get dragged out fresh…where is God?  Why did He let this happen?  Some very flawed answers have been suggested.  I was helped in reading a blog by Al Mohler.  He called it, “Does God Hate Haiti?”  It is worth reading by clicking here.