Lack of Obsession?

Good morning on this very cool September morn! As I stood bonging and banging a knife on various jars and stuff in the kitchen while waiting for the toast to pop up, I thought that most of us do not have the obsession required to become truly proficient at some skill. How many hours of kitchen percussion work would be required for me to become musical? Some say 10,000 hours would turn the trick. For someone in my kitchen suffering a headache this morning, it might have seemed just about that long. The obsessed creative person would have gone all day practicing with jars, cans, and other things, perhaps even changing over to a pair of forks. Me, when the toast popped up that was enough of the noise and I was gone. The distraction of food takes its toll on another budding musical talent.

Through an obsession to practice and train over many an obstacle, some few persons do achieve worldly success in some endeavor. They pile up impressive amounts of earthly treasure, enjoy fame, and win a few awards, not necessarily in that order. Unless the obsession is Olympic curling or such, then the treasure is little, fame passes by, and the awards quietly go into the cabinet at home. Does any of that matter in eternity? Win or lose on this earth, do we gain by it in our eternal home? Paul didn't seem to think so.

We may know some people in heaven who brought impressive earthly resumes with them. Paul would be one of them. Paul was like a one-man Jewish Inquisition back in his day. He had the training, the teachers, the talent, and the obsessive zeal. Someone said Christian cults had popped up in Damascus and Paul was on the way with his letters. He had the drive and the resume, and he thought the authority, but someone else brought him up short on that road. Later, Paul would say that all of his accomplishments, talent, training, and former obsession was nothing but trash to be thrown away. Sometimes we may moan about our lack of obsession or success in an area (or all of them), but I don't think we'll find Paul flashing his earthly resume in the heavenlies.

Trust in God, Live in Christ, and have a wonderful Saturday!

Bucky