Price

ByHal Hammons

A show I dearly love is coming to town, and I checked to see if the $98 ticket price was perhaps a misprint.  Turns out it’s not only accurate, it’s moderate.  Much higher prices for tickets are available.  And much, much higher ticket prices are posted for other live events later in the year.

Perhaps some of you have a spare $200 lying around that you can use to escort you and that special someone out for two hours of entertainment.  Me, it’s been well over a year since I found a regular movie that I considered to be worth a tenth of that.

“But it’s live entertainment,” the theater crowd says.  “It’s different.”  Well, I should hope so!  For that price, it had better be different!  But even so, I’ve gotten maybe four hours of “live entertainment” out of playing Coup with my family.  That’s four hours of joy apiece for four individuals (so far), all for $12.  And I got free covered parking and my choice of beverage.

I suppose it’s all about how much you value the experience.  Consider the price you may (or may not) be willing to pay to serve Jesus.  You may be completely satisfied with what you get when you pinch spiritual pennies.  Your guilt is assuaged, you convince yourself you are “involved,” and you free up the rest of your life for Netflix and Call of Duty.  But you never really experience what Jesus has to offer.

Paul says, “he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, ad he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).  If you are dissatisfied with the quality of your relationship with Jesus, it’s likely because you are not putting enough of your treasure there (Matthew 6:21).  So dig deeper.  You may be surprised what you find there.

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Perhaps you have heard of “food deserts.”  The term refers to places where people have limited (or less) access to grocery stores and other sources of healthy food.  Now there are “food swamps” — that is, where food is plentiful, just not nourishing.  Food swamps feature lots of gas stations, fast-food joints, and other places that promote obesity and bad eating habits.  No farmer’s markets or kale smoothie shops, though.

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