And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, (Philippians 1:9-10)

              What really matters.

              We live with a lot of diversions in our world today, some good and some maybe not so much. These are the things that divert our attention away from the world around us. Television has long been a diversion. Sports offer a great diversion. Social media, YouTube, Tik Tok, and all the other online time-hogs are diversions.

              The great thing about these diversions is that they don’t really matter. Whether the Minnesota Vikings win or lose on any given Sunday, other than a brief rise in blood pressure, nothing much changes in my life. TV shows and Instagram posts that make me laugh have little bearing on the world. They simply divert my attention so I don’t have to think about life and the world for a short while.

              Sometimes, though, we confuse the diversions with what really matters. Sports becomes our religion. Online spats take over our lives. We spend more time following the lives of the rich and famous than our own families.

              None of these things have much bearing on God’s kingdom or “the day of Christ.” Our “knowledge” and “insight” of the gospel teaches us that what really matters is feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, making peace and loving our neighbor. These things we cannot ignore.

              What really matters can be overwhelming in our world today and we need a diversion now and then. But our love of Christ and our love of God’s world will not allow us to check out and ignore what really matters. Let your love overflow, more and more, as we strive for God’s kingdom and that glorious “day of Christ.”