Tip of My Iceberg

It was too hot and muggy to play outside. My sweet husband can’t stand the beach. I was unwilling to stay inside with kids who were more than content on screens.

Fearing I’d be watching them turn into zombies, I needed to come up with somewhere to go and something to do.

Anything.

We ran through several thoughts. One by one, they got shot down by my husband. We needed to take a friend to the airport who’d spent the night with us, so once we dropped her off, I thought outside my box.

We could go to the mall.

You need to know how much I hate shopping. But this mall is huge, one of the largest in the area, with stores I’ve never heard of.

AND an indoor play area.

We wandered around for awhile, overwhelmed by the number of stores and the insane amount of people there. Everyone in central Florida must have shown up to the one place they knew would be cool.

We watched as people came in, dragging suitcases behind them. There are those who come here, especially from other countries, to do some serious shopping.

Not something I could readily imagine myself doing.

With no real desire to buy anything and no heart to window shop, we thought we’d take the kids to the food court for a treat.

The rest of the state of Florida was in that small space.

Leaving seemed the only sane thing to do. As we walked out, we took a picture of the kids with Kirby.

I’m not sure why.

You know it’s busy when cars stalk you as you return to your vehicle, wanting desperately to claim your vacated space.

Life has felt like that mall lately. Busy. Many calls on my attention. Noise wherever I turn. The excess of things can be an inordinate burden on anyone because of the task of keeping it all in order.

And everyone always wants more. More money, space, friends, likes, clothes, experiences.

During the time Jesus lived on earth, there was a great divide between those who were quite comfortable and those who struggled just to feed their families. The Romans overly taxed the Jews, and then there were the temple taxes as well. Greed was an issue as relevant then as it is today.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own….Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.’” Luke 12:15, 21

We all are in need of things, but what we need most is a relationship with the One who created us. Stuff and clutter cannot satisfy. It can make us crazy about procuring more things or focusing too much on the care of the things we have.

Instead, we could focus on filling our hearts and minds with the truths of God’s Word, His peace and comfort, His presence.

That’s guaranteed not to turn us into zombies.