My wife and I spent Saturday morning cleaning out the garage. Blog material at it’s finest – I know.

For the 5 years we have lived in our house one side of the garage has been filled with furniture, Christmas trees, items to giveaway, and now baby clothes and baby toys.   Let’s be honest … it was a nightmare.

After a couple of hours we had moved things into large piles.  Stuff to keep over there.  Stuff to donate over there.  Stuff to organize over there. And stuff to throw away over there.

At one point I walked past our “stuff to throw away” pile.  I was fascinated by a small trash can filled with some of the remnants of my high school athletic glory days – mostly newspaper clippings and trophies.  On this particular Saturday morning items that represented a significant part of my life were now reduced to the contents of a trash can.

I can’t even imagine the hours represented by the trophies in that trash can.  Countless hours watching tape, countless practice sessions, countless miles ran, countless summer camps, countless road trips.  What do I have to show for it now?  Trashed trophies.

It was a not-so-sublte reminder of Jesus words:

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33)

Some things are worth seeking.  Some things are not.

There was a time in my life when I sought after a lot of things – none of them the kingdom of God.  Those things and that time spent are now represented by trashed trophies in some form or fashion.  In contrast, time spent seeking the kingdom of God is never time wasted.

On this Monday … seek first the kingdom.