The Eye of a Needle

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." -Matthew 19:24
 
Once I had a coworker friend when I was a server at an upscale restaurant. For our purposes, we'll call him Rob. Rob was an extremely gifted young man. He was a big, tall lumberjack type of fellow with wit and intelligence as sharp as a knife. He had a photographic memory, and he never had to write down any of his orders. Now, that's quite a feat for a restaurant of that type - with a wine list a mile long and 3 different dinner specials a night. I believe he was working on his Masters degree at that time.

Now something really struck me about Rob. He never really needed anybody. He was a pleasant guy, and you could tell he enjoyed being so intelligent- more than others around him. But the sad part was, he didn't seem fulfilled. He seemed bored with his life. I got to thinking about Rob one day, and the scripture Matthew 19:24 came to mind.

"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
 
If you grew up in church, you might remember this Bible story. Normally when it is taught the reference to "rich" is correlated to money. But this is not necessarily the full extent of it's meaning. As I saw with my friend Rob, he was rich in talents, gifts, and personality, so he hadn't needed to learn to depend on God the way I had needed to. Sometimes our greatest gifts are the things that can hold us back the most. Ever seen gifted people try to get out of responsibility because of their giftedness? The degree of our giftedness does not excuse us from needing God or avoiding consequences - in fact, it places a greater burden on us to depend on Him and use our gifts to the greatest extent. How much further could we go with God than in our own strength? "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." -Luke 12:48b
 
Are you a really gifted person? Do your strengths sometimes get in the way of your reliance on God? (Ps 26:3) Pray that you and your gifts can be used to the fullest extent to serve Him and those around you.