It's all about...?

My wife, Matt B, and I spent last week working with middle school and high school students at a golf camp. The theme was, "For the Glory". It was an interesting experience because it forced me to contemplate God's glory while at the same time being constantly exposed to that thing that most competes for God's glory in my life. No, not golf, but everything that golf represents.

You see, for me golf represents comfort, luxury, money, pride, everything that could keep me tied down to this life (and this place) in an unhealthy manner. I'm not saying that golf is inherently sinful, but rather that it is a symbol of the fight that I must wage against the various messages thrown in my direction.

In his book, The Odyssey, Homer describes one particular challenge that Odysseus and his men faced - the Sirens. In his book, the goddess Circe warns the hero of the peril of these creatures.

First you will come to the Sirens
who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too
close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children
will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and
warble him to death with the sweetness of their song. There is a great
heap of dead men's bones lying all around, with the flesh still
rotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your
men's ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you
can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you
stand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must
lash the rope's ends to the mast itself, that you may have the
pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you,
then they must bind you faster.

It seems that Homer has a great illustration for the Christian life. We are all on our way to eternity. Either everlasting beauty or eternal destruction as C.S. Lewis puts it. The dangerous thing is that the Sirens of our day sing their songs, and I buy into it with reckless abandon. Much to my peril, I miss out on what is truly precious and lasting only to exchange it for Hollister, Titleist, XBOX, sex, BMW, ___________________ (Fill in the blank).

As we continue to reflect upon what it means to not waste a life, may we recognize the Siren songs that entice us, and may we be bound to the Rock of Ages by the ropes of His unending grace.