Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Illustrate the meaning of “All that Glitters is Not Gold” (without using the actual phrase or literal example). (01/24/08)
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TITLE: Fool's Gold | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laraine Hemrick Horney
01/30/08 -
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During American pioneer times, in the Gold Rush days, many prospectors spent countless hours panning the streams and digging in caves for gold. Every once in a while you would hear someone shouting “I’m rich! I’m rich!” because they found glittery rocks in the water or imbedded in the walls of a cave, only to be disappointed at the assayers office when it was found to be only “fool’s gold” – something close in appearance, but not the real deal.
Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about something – a job, a house, a person, a career. You say to yourself “If only ….. then I would be happy.” You want to have it so much, you find yourself thinking about it day and night. You develop a plan to get whatever it is, and work and work until you succeed. Then, once you have it, you begin to find things wrong with it. If it was a house, you find repairs are necessary that you did not anticipate. If it is a job, the work becomes either too routine or way more difficult than you imagined. Or that course of study you enrolled in at the local college isn’t so fulfilling after all, so you switch majors.
Maybe clothing or “stuff” is your temptation, but all too soon you find that it wears out, breaks, shrinks, bags or goes out of fashion.
Perhaps it is a relationship that was oh so sweet at the beginning; suddenly you hit a speed bump and wonder what happened to princess/prince charming.
But the point is this: We were designed to first be satisfied in a relationship with God – that he is our first source of fulfillment. Anything else we try to put in His place we leave an empty gnawing hole in the pit of our stomach and dissatisfaction in our spirit. Our disillusionment comes when we try allow first place in our hearts to something other than God. It just does not work.
If you find that you are at a place of disillusionment with the things you “had to have” maybe it is time to find your hope in Him again, to do like Matthew 6:33 says and “seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness…” We must all get to a point of trust that God really does know our truest needs, and He alone is able to fulfill them. Then we can get back to our responsibility of seeking Him first. We can relax and focus on growing stronger in Christ, serving God, and reaching a world of people out there who are just as disillusioned as we were, but don’t yet know that He is the answer.
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I think that the "without a literal illustration" part of the topic may be questioned by the judges.
Great reminder of where our focus needs to be and how we were created. Good job.