Is there a better Way?

The Kingdom of Heaven. It’s so strange that Jesus speaks about it as being some hidden power or buried treasure that some people discover in this life that changes everything.

We live in a time where the goal is to be yourself or to find your true self. The truth is that many of us find our true selves and are not terribly happy with what we discover. We discover that we are filled with all sorts of rage, pettiness, fears, contradictory thoughts, jealousy, envy and desire that is imposed upon us by our families, neighbors and economy. Don’t you want whiter teeth?

But Jesus whets our appetite and lights up our curiosity. Is there a better way? Is there the possibility of discovering a different way of being? If there is, doesn’t it make sense that we would seek to find that new way of being human? Doesn’t it make sense that others before us might have struggled to find this source of a regenerated life and written about it? Could anything be more important than finding the Kingdom of Heaven in this life?

There is a saying I once heard that has always stayed with me, “No one says at the end of life, I wish I had spent more time at the office.” Jesus says the opposite, “seek first the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” When we make finding God’s Kingdom in this life our priority, we are well on our way to a life well lived, a life that will no doubt be marked by compassion, justice and creative engagement with and for others.