I was struck by a comment that our pastor made this past weekend in his message. He was comparing the Old Testament Bible story of Jacob and Esau and the New Testament Bible parable of the “Prodigal Son.” I had never seen the similarities of what Esau and the Prodigal wanted. What they wanted was: ALL of it!!! and they wanted it now!!!
The Message paraphrase says in Hebrews 12:16, “Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite.”
Are we like Esau? We “think” we are soooooo hungry that we are willing to sell our future to take care of our current problem. As our pastor said, we need to “replace our short-term cravings with long-term vision.” We can’t get caught up in the moment and allow circumstances to overwhelm us! We have to keep our eyes on the long term vision… that God has for us!
I like it this way: Are you going to live your life like this: “Short-term gain; long term pain.” OR… “Short term pain; long term gain!”
I told our players on Monday that we generally don’t like pain. But as the cliche says: “No pain; no gain!” If we’re willing to suffer a little now (instead of avoiding that pain!), the long term results are sooooooo much better.
Great words coach, hard, but great!