Short term gain, long term loss...

It seems that life is filled with the types of choices that hold the promise of short term gain against long term loss. In today's OT reading, we see a rather extreme example of that. Esau trades his birthright away for food when he is hungry after a hunt. For the short term gain of assuaging his hunger, Esau loses his place in the lineage that was rightfully his. The short term gain is so little relative to his long term loss that the point is made very concretely. Wisdom and patience would have kept Esau from so great a sacrifice, but instead he proceeded with his decision, indifferent to its consequences. If he had known what the consequences would be, would he have done the same? Probably not, who would? But often we do not know the consequences of any decision we make, and therefore wisdom and introspection should precede most decisions. A pursuit of wisdom would have allowed Esau to know the gravity of his decision, but instead, he chose to spend his days hunting.

In the NT reading, Jesus gives two examples of "short term gain, long term loss." The first example is in the negative. When one of the teachers of religious law says that he will follow wherever Jesus leads, Jesus makes sure to remind him about the hardship of that life, saying that He has no place even to lay his head. He is reminding the man that his request will result in a short term loss (of comfort, security, etc), but that the reward is a long term gain.

Conversely, Jesus warns the disciple who wishes to go bury his father to "let the dead bury their own dead." By saying this, he cuts short the man's request for his short term gain (inheritance, etc.) and admonishes him not to pursue a course that will result in a long term loss. Following Jesus is not convenient, or something that can be "gotten around to" when everything else is accomplished. Following Jesus is a derivative of His earlier command to "make the Kingdom of Heaven your primary concern." The end result of that command is an inversion of our normal earthly priorities, so that all our actions are secondary to our pursuit of Christ.

Does that mean I don't have to pay my bills, or go to work? No, but one needs to understand that *everything,* every action, every reaction, absolutely every part of one's life, must be interpreted in light of one's involvement with God. God is FIRST. Period. End. Only in realizing this do we come awake to the fundamental realities of life, and rise again from our spiritual deaths. To do anything else is to eventually die again, to be the dead burying their dead.

In the last part of the NT reading, we see an entire village give an example of short term gain, long term loss. Upset at the loss of a herd of pigs, and afraid of the power of Jesus, they ask Jesus to leave their village.

"Jesus, go AWAY and leave us alone!" Who says that? Who would ever say that? We turn to Jesus over and over in our lives when our lives fall apart, and we are left standing in the rubble. We may casually ignore our spiritual responsibilities, hoping to fall back on Jesus when we need Him, but do we ever demand that He leave our lives? If He came into your house, and you knew it was Him, by reputation and acclaim, would you turn Him away, and ask Him to never bother you again?

Again, for the short term gain of decreasing discomfort of fear and anger over the loss of a herd of pigs, the village created the long term loss of Jesus from their lives.

How many decisions will we make today that result in a long term loss, just because there is an immediate, short term gain? And at the end of it all, how many times is the short term gain overshadowed by the awesome nature of the long term loss it produces? When we find ourselves hating, because loving seems so hard, or when we are afraid, because we do not choose to live in faith... From Jacob and Esau to our own present day, every day, how do we ever, ever learn?