The One Thing

A rich young man came to Jesus asking questions about eternal life and Jesus told him, "You lack one thing..."  (Mark 10:21).  The one thing was not the fact that the man was rich, or that he had many possessions although such was true, but the way his heart was defined and shaped by what he could hold in his hands.  It was not the money that was the problem, but how it affected his life.  Was he one who could never say enough?  Was he afflicted with greed?  Was his money and the security it provided him the real focus of his trust?  Did he love the status it provided him in the community?  

Though we may not know for certain the one thing he would not give up to follow Jesus, we do know it was more of the heart than just the coins in the purse.  Most of us would rather think of the one thing as some external thing.  What can be held in the hand is always easier to handle than the things of the heart.  We often hold onto the things of the heart so long that we forget we are holding them, or at least we lose sight of the way they are more important to us than letting them go to follow Jesus.  How many of us have not nursed a grudge too long?  How many of us have gotten caught up thinking about how important we are?  How many of us have not looked at the homeless man at the street corner and thought less than charitable thoughts? How many of us know that our level of generosity is really determined by keeping up with the folks in the neighborhood?  

What is the one thing Jesus might ask us to let go if we encountered Him on the road as did the rich young man?  Would we walk away shaking our head muttering that Jesus does not understand?  Would there be for us such a regret that we would actually feel sorrow, or are we so accustomed to the one thing being in our heart giving shape to our life that we would just walk away thinking He lives in a fantasy world?