The Barefoot Evangelist

Read Mark 10:17-31 with your family.

Today a lot of people try to tell us what Jesus was most interested in. They try to convince us that it is the words we use, or the people we love, or the choices we make.

But Jesus spent a great deal of time telling the rich and the powerful that they had missed the point, and that their power and money was standing in the way of a relationship with God. Jesus told them that they had to give away their power and stuff if they really wanted to know God.

The rich and powerful don’t like hearing that today any more than they liked hearing that when Jesus was teaching 2000 years ago.

Everywhere we look someone is trying to tell us that spending money and buying more things will make us happy, but that is not true. The more we have, the less we enjoy those things. Jesus showed us a different way.

To truly know God, we have to focus on loving others, not on making money or owning stuff. The more we give away, the more we understand the joy of giving and sharing, and that’s the world God wants us to build together.