What is really important here?

I was downstairs tonight, drinking coffee with soy milk (That part of my fast is going well, and I just got back from the grocery store with a haul of delicious *hopefully* food. Does anyone have some good tofu recipes? Because I got a block of tofu without actually having a concrete plan for its demise.) and listening to my dad and brother talk about stocks and the economy and money and stressful-doom-and-gloom things. I wasn't really listening because I was telling my brother's friend the story of my crazy roommates from last year and how they got really, REALLY drunk and trashed our apartment while I was gone one night. (Now I am really shy of roommates, hence the living at home for now. That's another ramble for another time.) Then my dad said something that got my attention: "In twenty years, the dollar will be obsolete."

Twenty years? Twenty years ago was 1991. Jelly shoes. Pink jeans. White athletic socks that go up to your knees. Wearing all of the above together. "Losing My Religion" by R.E.M. was the top pop song of the year. Twenty years seems like a long time, considering that's how long I have been alive. Well, almost twenty-one years. I was a '90 child. But looking into the future, twenty years doesn't seem very long, especially considering how much change will have to happen if the dollar is to indeed become obsolete in that amount of time. I am no economist - I'm an English major, for goodness' sake - but I know enough to understand that it is very possible that the dollar may not live to see 2021.

A lot could change by then. Hopefully, I will have graduated college, gotten a doctorate of some sort and be teaching Literature at some university, driving a BMW and living in a pretty cool house with my handsome husband, perfect children, and *insert big, gorgeous, well-behaved dog here*. I would be an awesome cook (No repeat of last Valentine's Day when I didn't cook the whole chicken long enough. It's a miracle that Austin and I didn't die of salmonella.), and I would wear pearls in the kitchen like Julia Child.

That all sounds pretty great, right? I mean, I think it does. But what about non-material things? Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I love how the Message version puts it: "Don't hoard treasure down where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or - worse! - stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars! It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is the place you will most want to be, and end up being."

After my dad mentioned the dollar becoming obsolete, my first reaction was to worry about what was going to happen to me and my plans for the future. Then I realized that even if the dollar was going to stick around for a thousand-billion-gazillion more years, my well-laid plans could, and probably would, be changed, no matter how much effort I put into them. But I know one thing that will not ever change, and that is God's love and provision for those who love Him. Why worry about what is going to happen in twenty years? God has it all under control, and He isn't worried. Why should I be? He doesn't need me to worry for Him.

Several months ago, I was dealing with an issue that I couldn't shake, no matter how hard I tried, and I was getting really discouraged in my failure. The thought came to me: Love God, and everything else will follow in due course. Saint Augustine said "Love God, and do as you please." I won't have anything to worry about if I keep my focus on God. He will take care of my every, single need (does a BMW count as a need?), and all he asks in return is that I love Him. Sounds pretty simple when you get down to it, doesn't it? I'm not kidding anybody, least of all myself. It will be hard, but so very rewarding.

I love God a whole lot, but sometimes it's easy to forget that He is up there, watching, while I live life in my comfortable, middle-class way. Wealth can breed a false sense of security, and all we need is one windfall of disaster (Job, anyone?) and we are screaming at God about why this happened and we never did anything to deserve this. But it's that sense of security that turned into the thinking that we are okay and we don't need anyone or anything to help us out. So God comes along and taps us on the shoulder - sometimes a gentle tap, sometimes an earth-shaking tap - to get our attention off of ourselves and back onto Him. I won't even kid myself that I can make it through life without that happening (I'm human, like you and everyone else on this planet), but I hope that this fast will get me a little more in tune with God and His plans. Maybe then He won't have to tap so hard when He is sending a change-of-your-plans memo.