Devotional Thought of the Day:

21 Jesus looked straight at him with love and said, “You need only one thing. Go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” 22 When the man heard this, gloom spread over his face, and he went away sad, because he was very rich. Mark 10:21-22 GNT

498         You are writing to me in the kitchen, by the stove. It is early afternoon. It is cold. By your side, your younger sister— the last one to discover the divine folly of living her Christian vocation to the full—is peeling potatoes. To all appearances—you think—her work is the same as before. And yet, what a difference there is! It is true: before she only peeled potatoes, now, she is sanctifying herself peeling potatoes.

The rich young man couldn’t see his goal of eternal life gained because he couldn’t change how he defined himself. And so he walked away, saddened, gloomy, dejected.

The younger sister, doing such a menial task as pealing potatoes, was able to do so, she didn’t see herself as peeling potatoes, she saw her work as being with God, nseeing the work He was doing in her, making her holy.

So is the difference between the young man and the young lady simply economics, that those who are poor find it easier to respond? Or is there something else at work here?

Could it be the same question that assaults so many people today, the question that betrays our hollow lives?

“does who I am matter?”

The young man had locked his identiry in, he was inable to define himself in relation to Jesus, even though where he was in that moment could have continued eternally. Many of us do that, whether we are rich or not. We lock our identity into our jobs, our relationships, our status in society. And then, evaluating that idenity, we find it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make any lasting change.

We see this more and more, as people jump of the corporate ladder, as they run through career after career. We see it as we burn ourselves out in the helping professions, or in the large lines when lotteries approach 1/2 billion dollars. We see it in the changing of majors.

People want an identity that matters, they want to make a difference. They want to have a significant role in life.

And a girl found such peeling potatoes. Not because of the work, not because of the significance of any role she had, but because she found had meant something to God.

That makes all the difference.

You and I matter to God, He values us, and desires that we spend time with Him, time now, and time for eternity.

He loves us enough to make sure this is possible.

So sit back for a moment, and think about the fact that you actually matter to God.

And then, go about your day, letting this define you. AMEN!

Escriva, Josemaria. Furrow (Kindle Locations 2163-2167). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.