From Addiction To Allergy

Saturday I attended the funeral service of a friend whose life had given me a lot to reflect about.

My friend Vicente was once a businessman who was making good in the currency exchange business. His life practically revolved around money. He loved the color of money. He dealt with money everyday.

One day,  criminal elements, attacked him. They shot him at close range. But he did not die. By God’s grace and mercy, he survived despite his wounds. While recovering, he did a lot of thinking. He believed God through this experience was telling him something. It was a wake up call. He had been too much caught up with his  business that he had forgotten about his  relationship with Christ, whom he once received as Lord and Redeemer.

After complete recovery, he closed his business and decided to spend the rest of his remaining years in the service of Christ, until the Master called him home. I remember him telling me that he was once addicted to money, but thanks God, He changed the addiction to an allergy.  

We get easily caught up in the materialism of this world, before we know it, the unbridled  desire for more and more begin to dominate our hearts. Everyday, as Christians we face the crucial choice of setting our minds, on the temporal or the eternal.

The Lord reminds us, that our hearts will always follow what we treasure most.

He said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)