Matthew’s Gospel records Jesus telling his listeners to strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness and their needs will be taken care of (Mt 6:25-34).  I think Jesus is speaking here of a principle of human happiness and fulfillment.  Your relationship with God and with things (spouse, children, vocation, material possessions) is like a triangle.  Imagine it.  Suppose your are married.  If God is at the top point of the triangle, you and your spouse are each at one of the bottom points.  The triangle principle is that for the two of you to truly meet in the deepest intimacy you must both first pursue God, and you will find one another.  Jesus taught that to truly enjoy anything–in this case, your spouse–you must move toward the top of the triangle.  But why not just move along the bottom line of the triangle directly toward the object of enjoyment?  Isn’t the shortest distance between two points a straight line?  That does seem reasonable.  But here’s the catch.

 

God owns everything.  As the psalmists writes, He owns “the cattle on a thousand hills”, Ps 50:10).  So, all the lesser pleasures in life are connected to God, tied to Him.  Then add to this reality that God is “the hound of Heaven,” chasing and pursuing us as we run from Him and toward the lesser things we want.  See what happens?  We chase things, God chases us, and things are tied to God.  An endless, fruitless search.  A “chasing after the wind,” as Solomon would write (Ecc 2:11).  C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you will get neither.” 

Well, isn’t it kind of cruel that God just pulls the things we want away from us.  No, I don’t think it’s quite that simple.  God made us as machines to run on the fuel that is Himself.  And as Lewis notes in Mere Christianity, asking God to give us a happiness that doesn’t involve Him is asking for something that doesn’t exist, something that can’t exist. 

As you each move closer to the top of the triangle—to God, look what else happens, you move closer to the things that God created for us to enjoy.  When first things come first—God—second things flourish—your marriage, your family, your job, your activities.  I think this is at least partially what Jesus was referring to when he said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt 10:39).  

QUESTION: Is it possible for people to simply pursue God as mercenaries—just out for the rewards they will receive?