Do You Know Your Temple And Your Gold?

Perhaps a story about a few blind guides would help you answer that question. After I read it, I was compelled to probe my heart and intentions. I learnt from their dialogue with truth that it's not being unable to see alone that makes one blind but also not seeing things in their proper context. If you’re ready to acquaint yourself with your temple and your gold, please read on with an open mind and you just might learn something new about yourself. Let’s begin with a summary of their dialogue.

A group of blind guides said that if a person swears by a temple it means nothing, but that anyone who swears by the gold of that temple, is bound by that oath…essentially implying that the gold of the temple was more valuable than the temple. They were then challenged by truth who asked, "which is greater: the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? “You're probably thinking, where are we going with this?

*Stay with me, it gets better I promise… :)

The full context of this dialogue was really about hypocrisy but then I also realised that using this formula to ask ourselves questions really helps to bring perspective to the things or opportunities we pursue. I’ve put together three questions to explain this more practically. As you read them and especially if they apply to you, please ask yourself what you’ve assigned as the temple or the gold. What makes what important? Which is greater? If you can answer that, you’ll understand more clearly what you’re really seeking after and the reasoning behind your decisions. The three questions are as follows:

1. Is it the profit gained (e.g. money, associations etc) that makes the opportunity offered to you appealing and worth pursuing or is it the experience of the opportunity that makes the profits you would gain appealing?

2. Is it the potential partner that makes their qualities/things they have or come with appealing or is it their qualities/things they have or come with that makes them appealing to you?

3. Is it the blessings that God gives that makes serving him appealing or is it serving him that makes those blessings worth having in the end? (don't forget that blessings can be received from different sources, it's just that the one that God gives adds no sorrow (Pro.10:22))

I can go on, but asking these kinds of questions helps us test our motives and understand what we really desire. What is the reasoning behind the things we do and what are we really seeking to achieve? What makes the things we desire or pursue valuable in our eyes and what really makes them worth pursuing? For instance again, if I was to expand on the first question using a more relatable example I would describe Matthew’s scenario below:

Let’s say Matthew’s purpose was not in his current profession but he used his job to fund his purpose, then he shouldn't always seek or expect from his job the kind of organic fulfilment that would come from walking in purpose. So in this case, it’s his purpose that makes the job appealing because he understands that the profit gained from his job would help him facilitate purpose and make it a reality. If he just assumed that his job would ‘fulfil’ him in the way that purpose does, he may become frustrated and go from job to job seeking ‘fulfilment’ because he didn’t find it in his “previous” job, when in reality his job can’t provide that because it’s not created to (that’s in Matthew’s case, as it is also possible for a person’s purpose and profession to co-exist).

“This is how problems and toxic cycles can be engendered if one is not aware of the right order of things from the start. Yes he may have seen that the job was not ‘fulfilling’ to him, but would that be the correct judgement of things given that for that context, the job was just supposed to be a catalyst for his purpose which would then ‘fulfil’ him.”

These kinds of questions are not always easy to answer because it takes courage to be honest with ourselves. It takes courage to adjust the things we pursue and our expectations of what they can provide for us. We often pray that “God should open our eyes” to what we need to see, but I believe in addition to that we need to also ask God to please open our eyes to see in the way he desires that we see, in the way we ought to see. What have you assigned as the temple and the gold amongst the things you desire and pursue? I said at the start that my heart and intentions were probed and a part of that process involved answering this question.

It is my prayer that God helps us see and prioritise appropriately so we don't become frustrated because we’re expecting results from pursuits that were never created to provide such in the first place, but more importantly, may we indeed be helped…so we don’t become our own blind guides.

Take-home point:

• Seeing is not enough, how we see is also important because our perspective can influence our interpretation of events, our sense of fulfilment or contentment and our pursuit of things.

• Full dialogue: Matthew 23:16-22

Image Credit:

• Photos from unsplash by Tim Gouw, Bekky Bekks and Papaioannou Kostas