These Foolish Things

A couple of days ago, I was resting the whole afternoon inside our room, a little tired from the furiousness of the preparation for my son's birthday celebration that day. As always, when sleep does not comes as easily, I would spun some reading materials until my eyes get tired and golden slumber sets in.
That day, I picked the Holy Bible and randomly paged through it. The first page I opened was page 288 and I read the following verses:

"And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that
he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them;
and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were
around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do
like them." [II Kings 17:15]

After I read the preceding words. I leafed randomly again through the thick King James Version until page 553 popped out and I read the following verses;

"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto
them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their
own spirit, and have seen nothing!

O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes
in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge
for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.
They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath
not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the
word.

Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying
divination, whereas ye say, The LORD saith it; albeit I have not spoken?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen
lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.

And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of
the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye
shall know that I am the Lord GOD." [Ezek 13:1-13]

As you could see, both random verses were specifically about vanity and the precaution of the Lord to those who may traverse the excesses of our desires.

Moments after I read the above-written verses, I saw the clouds break into morsels of images, as I look into the sky. Our window gives me a wide view of the clouds. And then the Angel appeared, with its wings spread far apart. On the background were a number of signs and symbols. There was a book, a dragon, a pyramid, a double slash sign (like in our html addresses), and a few more that I could not remember quite exactly. The Angel was forewarning me about the temptations of vanity---of gold and silver---that I may possibly fall into the wayside and lose my sight on the real purposes of my mission and become a "foolish prophet". This is the kind of conversation me and the Angel has if only you should know.

A day after I read the signs, I was driving so casually through town when I chance upon a colleague from Law school driving a very fancy vehicle, one that you could only have in your wildest dreams. The onset of "emotional obfuscation" was a little sudden that it hit me like a bee sting. I guess the human emotion is one you could not take rein as easily. Envy was as real as the wind we breathe and It is inescapable like the sun on a warm summer day.

I asked myself then if I measure well to the Lord's calling now that I realize that I am left fragile against the temptations of wealth. And ultimately, I cured my emotional disturbance by deciding that as a man of great faith, I should not measure myself against men and women who had gain great wealth nor great fame, but I must measure only to one man, and that is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord never even had a house of His own much less a grand fancy vehicle, and yet He owns the Kingdom of Everlasting Life.

I took a great sigh and became grateful to the Lord for He had forewarned me, otherwise I would be trapped in my own envy and become a "foolish prophet".