Wise Exchange

My friend Billie, director of Africans Reaching Africa, painted this picture for me: “Imagine you lived in the South at the end of the Civil War, and you were told that your Confederate currency was about to be invalidated, but you could exchange it for U.S. legal tender if you did right away, before it was canceled.”

“Would you have hung on to what was soon to be worthless? Or would you exchange it for something valuable?”

We know that we can’t bring our money into heaven, but Jesus told us we can exchange it, sending it on ahead:

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth… Collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20 HCSB).

My problem is, I think too momentarily. The world we live in is real to us. We can see, feel, and touch what is here. But eternity is so other-worldly.

However, it will not be too far in the future before all of us will know the reality of the next life. And that world will then be as real to us as this world is to us today. There will be joy for how we prepared for it, and regret for how we did not.

Linda and I did not do a good job preparing for retirement. I always thought, “You never really need to retire from ministry.” And while there’s some truth to that, I came to realize I needed to prepare for a day when I will no longer be productive so that I’m not a burden. These last ten years, we’ve made up for a lot of lost time and have worked hard at putting funds away for the future.

But if and when I do retire, it’s really only going to be for a short time. I love ministry and I love the church, so I’ll keep going as long as I’m able. Once I’m no longer able, maybe I’ll have another ten years left on this earth? But even if it’s twenty…think about it…what is that?

I’m far more concerned about planning for our ultimate retirement.

Eternity will be forever. And the treasure we store in heaven will last a lot longer than one or two decades. That will be for eternity.

So again, let’s look at Jesus’ words:

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth… Collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20 HCSB).