Bankrupt of Money, What Next?

In the news this week, a local Detroit man has filed for bankruptcy, as his debts exceed his ability to pay.  I imagine you are asking, "What is newsworthy in that?  This headline is all too familiar in this current economic climate, especially in Detroit."

Would it help if I said the person in the news was Derrick Coleman?  Coleman is a retired professional athlete, having played for 15 seasons in the NBA after a very successful stint at Syracuse University.  What makes this more tragic, is that investigation shows Coleman's salary over those seasons exceeded $87 million.  You can read more here...

It seems Coleman meant well.  He bought properties in Detroit with the intent of revitalizing the a downtown area.  He invested in local projects.  But, alas, the money is gone.  And all of us are saying, "That's a lot of money to be gone."

Where do you turn when it is all gone?  When you had something - maybe a lot of something - but nearly all of it is gone?  The disciples were asking themselves that very question in the hours and days following the crucifixion.  Standing along Jesus, prior to that fateful Friday, they were rich.  Not monetarily, but they were rich in vision, rich in potential, rich in what they believed their place would be in His coming Kingdom.  Then everything, it seemed, was lost.

We are fortunate to have the rest of the story.  We know that Jesus returned to show them another way. His return addressed the fact that investments in worldly materials and dreams limited only to this world don't last.  They began to hear, in those amazing days after Easter, what he had been saying all along; being rich in the things of heaven cannot be taken away, even by death.  We read it in Matthew 6, spoken as many as 2 years earlier to a crowd gathered up from the Galilee on a hill.  Jesus was teaching that there is a greater currency that does not wither, does not depreciate, and will not go bankrupt.

What would it mean for us, also in these amazing days after Easter, to invest ourselves in that which is eternal?  Can others see evidence in how we live for what we believe?