{"id":4338,"date":"2025-01-13T07:58:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4338"},"modified":"2025-01-13T07:58:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:58:37","slug":"the-best-things-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/13\/the-best-things-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Things in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

Journalists are running out of words to describe the cataclysmic wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

Apocalyptic. Unimaginable. Catastrophic. Heartbreaking. Life-altering.\u00a0<\/em>

Firefighters have been battling fierce Santa Ana winds and hydrants devoid of water. At least 16 Angelenos are known to have died, and damages are expected to exceed $20 billion \u2013 numbers almost certain to rise in the days ahead.

The disaster has been a great equalizer. When you\u2019re running for your life or standing in front of a smoldering heap that used to be your house, it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a rich celebrity or a working class 9-to-5\u2019er.

Whole neighborhoods are gone, including churches, schools, libraries, museums, and pizza joints.

Homeowners are in shock, mourning the loss of all their kids\u2019 drawings, love letters, favorite pieces of furniture, cultivated gardens, and keepsakes. A CNN reporter talked to a man sifting through the ashes of his home, searching for anything sentimental he could retrieve for his wife. \u201cEven a teacup,\u201d he said, fighting back tears. \u201cIf only I could find a piece of one teacup.\u201d\u00a0

Years ago I was the guest of a church in a community in the foothills of California\u2019s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Wildfires had raged up and down the mountain slopes that fall in the midst of a lingering drought.

During the worship service, one of the Sunday School directors \u2013 a young mom \u2013 invited the children who were present to join her at the front of the sanctuary for the \u201ckids\u2019 sermon.\u201d

She asked them a poignant question:\u00a0\u201cHow many of you have had to evacuate your house in recent weeks?\u201d About a quarter of the children raised their hands. Then she asked: \u201cWhat are the things that your family has decided to put in their emergency go-bag?\u201d

All my life that\u2019s been nothing but a theoretical question \u2013 basically a conversation starter for small groups.\u00a0

Your house is on fire.\u00a0The people and the pets are safe.\u00a0You can only save three things.\u00a0What would they be?\u00a0<\/em>For the people who live in the tinder box dryness of southern California, however, that is not a theoretical question.\u00a0

The Sunday School director then held up the three items she had rushed to her own car when it appeared an evacuation order was coming.

The first was a large framed photograph taken on her wedding day, in which she and her husband were standing together.\u00a0The second was Cutie, their daughter\u2019s deeply-loved green turtle stuffed animal.\u00a0The third was her Bible, which was filled with handwritten notes in the margins, underlined verses, and creased pages \u2013 a personal record of her spiritual life.

Wouldn\u2019t it be easy enough, however, just to take more pictures and buy a new stuffed animal?\u00a0And aren\u2019t more Bibles sold every year than any other book in the world?\u00a0

But these weren\u2019t mere things.\u00a0These were irreplaceable treasures \u2013 cherished symbols of the three key relationships in her life:\u00a0her husband, her child, and Christ.

The best things in life are not things.\u00a0<\/em>The best things in life are relationships.

We say we believe this.\u00a0But often we live as if another two projects at work, or another two hundred dollars in the bank account, or another two hours watching TV will somehow make us happy.\u00a0Inevitably we are disappointed.\u00a0

Jesus said, \u201cTake care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot\u201d (Luke 12:15).

Only when an \u201cevacuation order\u201d is sounded \u2013 a defining moment big enough to force us to choose between what really matters and what only masquerades as important \u2013 does reality fully dawn on us.

In truth, every one of us is going to hear life\u2019s most significant evacuation order one day. It may come tomorrow or years from now. It may come with ample warning or dramatic suddenness. But make no mistake: It will come.

God will call us to step into the next world, leaving everything behind.

Don\u2019t wait until you \u201csmell smoke.\u201d

Hang on today<\/em> to your dearest relationships.\u00a0

And don\u2019t let go.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Journalists are running out of words to describe the cataclysmic wildfires that have devastated Los Angeles and surrounding communities. Apocalyptic. Unimaginable. Catastrophic. Heartbreaking. Life-altering.\u00a0 Firefighters have been battling fierce Santa Ana winds and hydrants devoid of water. At least 16 Angelenos are known to have died, and damages are expected to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[143,850,29],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-greed","tag-possessions","tag-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4340,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions\/4340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}