36 For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? (Mark 8:36 CSB)

Everything.

It seems like that is what we are striving for. Trying to gain as much as we can store up while we are on the earth.

But what if all that storing up was diminishing your eternal value? What if all that accumulation were actually hurting you and making life more difficult.

We typically do not look at gain and accumulation in this way. We see them as markers success, and there is nothing wrong with success. It is really what we do with it that marks us in eternity.

If you gain the whole world but lose your life, what value would that be?

History is replete with stories of those who have amassed great wealth to only die lonely and alone. We all face the same end. However, what we face beyond that end is so much more meaningful in regards to how we live each day.

Storing up for life is the short run. Storing up for eternity is the long run.