I remember the first time a purchased a motorcycle. I saw an ad in the local paper and I decided to go take a look at a v-twin roadster from a private seller. I ended up buying the bike. Problem is I didn’t know how to ride it. The seller drove it home for me that day. Within a week I wrecked it.
“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now.” Zig Ziglar
I didn’t total the bike and no I wasn’t seriously injured except my pride. I had recently ended a long-term relationship with a person I was supposed to marry. So what does any red-blooded American do to cope with the pain of a breakup? You go buy something. For me, it was a motorcycle. It was either that or rebound. To be honest I tried both. And both crashed.
The bike had a cool factor to it. At the time I thought it was what I needed.
Who would buy a bike and ride it without knowing how? Who would trade in their safety and future health to meet a present desire?
Me. Maybe you too.
There’s a story in the Old Testament, not of someone buying a motorcycle. But of someone trading something valuable for a bowl of stew. You may have heard it before. It’s the one about Jacob and Esau.
Read Genesis 25:19-34
Here are some things we can learn from this story and how it really connects with our experiences today.
Our immediate problems blind our ability to see God’s future promises.
Don’t trade in your future promises to satisfy your present desires. In the moment your problems seem bigger than God’s promises. In the moment we magnify the pain of our problems, our wants and our desires grow large.
It’s called focalism.
Focalism: focuses our mind on one thing and blurs out everything else.
Our memories of God’s faithfulness to us and how he has come through for us fade into the background. The faith to see God’s future glory in what he has promised is replaced by the focus we have placed on the desire. Don’t admire the problem and lose the wonder of the promise.
When the immediate becomes the urgent then what we want looks even better than what we need.
It’s a bowl of lentil stew.
Think of the headline today. Man Trades in Inheritance for a Cup of Ramen.
I actually love Ramen. Spicy Seafood is my favorite. I had some this week. But if you asked me to give up 2/3rds of my father’s inheritance. That’s an easy choice. Right?
It seems rather silly, doesn’t it?
But I am so hungry Jovan, I’m starving.
When was the last time you ate?
I barely had anything to eat today. Except I had a bowl of cereal, banana, and coffee in the morning. A bagel with cream cheese at the office. A cheeseburger at lunch. Cookies and cake at the afternoon office party. A granola bar on the way home. It’s been a long day and I am famished.
We don’t know what famished even means.
There’s a term that can be used for when we act like this.
Impact bias: takes a simple appetite and magnifies it out of proportion.
Sound familiar? Jim Gaffigan has a bit where he talks about planning meals on vacation.
“That’s all a vacation is, is eating at places you’ve never been. What don’t we eat something and then get something to eat? Then we’ll see that thing we’re supposed to see. They probably got a snack bar there right?”
We purchase food at the grocery store but when we get home there’s nothing to eat. We open our closets full of clothes but there’s nothing to wear. There’s a box full of toys but nothing to play with. There’s a case of DVD’s, Netflix, and Hulu but there’s nothing to watch. We’ve got video games and board games, recreation equipment like bikes, and skis but there’s nothing to do.
We have the love of our spouse but desire the intimacy of another. We have the love and approval of our family but only desire the approval of our bosses.
So we go out to eat something we shouldn’t and we get heartburn and indigestion. We finance a good deal and fail to check if we can really pay for it or if we really need it. We sign up for a can’t miss “opportunity” and immediately regret it. We take a new job and realize the grass isn’t always greener.
We are tempted to despise what we have. When we make the trade of what is ahead of for what is before we despise what God has in store for us.
1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV) But godliness with contentment is great gain.
We have appetites for food, for possessions, for love and acceptance, that never go away.
We have legitimate needs. Hunger is a legitimate need.
“Sin is meeting a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.” – Andy Stanley
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Hebrews 12:16 (NIV)
Esau despised his birthright when he took that deal with his brother Jacob. He traded his future for a bowl of stew.
Don’t trade your future for a bowl of stew.
When your appetites are out of control you will only always want to receive. You become incapable of seeing how your appetites affect your future.
God has a gift for you, an inheritance. For through Christ we all can become sons and daughters of the king.
When we receive that gift it is actually meant to break the cycle of receiving and start a new cycle of giving.
When you experience the grace of God you choose to be a grace to others. Immediate problems stay in perspective with the love and faithfulness God has for you.
God is not in the habit of taking shortcuts with you and your future with him. He is in it, your life and the salvation of your soul, for the long haul.
Trust in Him. Resist sin. Be content.
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Jovan preaches for the Littleton Church of Christ near Denver, Colorado. Visit here to listen to sermons preached at the Littleton Church.