The Profit

As I was sitting in a well know burger company's dining room enjoying a hamburger that I should not have been eating, something caught my eye. Almost half way up the side of the cup there was a picture of a cup filled with ice up to that point.  Similarly, there was another picture of a cup with a line near the top with fluid where the line indicates. At first glance you might say that they are informing you, the consumer, how to optimize your hydration efforts by indicating the perfect amount of ice and the perfect amount of fluid. However, and this is where the accountant in me speaks, I realize what they are really there for. They are there to optimise the profit out of the drink for their workers. By profit I mean the money that is left over after you pay the bills and wages for that beverage. The worker's wages, not the cup's. Has the world come down to this, looking at even the smallest things and trying to study it so that we can expend as little effort or money as possible in order to get the most benefit?

Then I start to think about religion and our faith. Have we reduced this down to the smallest sacrifice in order to get the full benefit? Do we spend just enough time on our faith so that we can call ourselves christians and feel good about it? I hope not, but I think there is a majority of people that have. I know at times I have. There have been many times in my life when I have just gone to church and prayed every now and then so that I could say I had a relationship with God. Have you done that?

The gospel of Jesus is not cut and paste. It is not a 'take what you like and leave the rest for the people who like that' faith system. Jesus says that we are to love everyone. Not just the people who call themselves Christians. He meant the non believers too. The liars, cheats, homosexuals, adulterers, everyone. We can't study the gospel enough in order to shave it down to the smallest expenditure and still get the full profit which is our salvation through Christ. We have to give all, not looking for any profit, and in return for going "bankrupt" to the Lord, we will gain the greatest profit of all; eternity.