"What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole word and lose his own soul.” Matt 16:26

The above was my high school motto in the Bahamas. Is it not strange how a few words can be so meaningless until the vicissitudes of life bring them into sharp focus and then you fully appreciate what the teachers were trying to instill in you so long ago?

The above was a constant reminder to all the students at the school about the sacred connection between our efforts and desires and the overriding purpose of God. With our eyes on the prize of a high school diploma we were never to lose sight of what is truly important and worthwhile in this world.

Man in his finite wisdom and exalted ego thinks and assumes the world is his oyster. He acts as if he is immortal and he will be around forever to enjoy it.

Quickly now, what do JP Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Alexander The Great, Attila The Hun, Genghis Khan and William The Conqueror all have in common? Simple.They are all dead and whatever power, influence and wealth they had obtained have all faded into history and into the hands of another man.

The same condition that befalls the beast of the field happened to every one of them. They came from dust and returned to it and could do absolutely nothing to alter it.

You must always allow in everything you do or contemplate room for God. The Bible warns us. "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom , let not the strong man glory in his strength, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this that he truly knows and understands that I am the Lord who exercises justice and loving kindness upon the face of the earth.” Jer.9:23

Further on it says, "He hath shown you O! Man! what doth the Lord require of thee ? but to do justly,to love kindness and to walk humbly before your God.” Micah 6:8.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, at the end of his life reviewed the landscape that shaped his existence here on earth. He mused that everything his heart could desire and whatever pleasurable thing his eyes beheld he did not deny himself of it. However, he estimated that all his possessions were all empty and pointless because the period to enjoy them was so brief and temporary. It saddened him that despite all his attributes and accolades he could not overcome his most formidable adversary nor prevent the loss of his goods to the greatest thief of all—time. He had no control over anything that he had acquired once he entered the grave. Thus his final statement, "Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.”

You may be aware that after the death of Solomon the unified and prosperous kingdom of Israel was torn apart. Thereby was initiated a downslide that has persisted until the present day. This disintegration was brought about because his foolish son Rehoboam ignored the sage advice of his elders.

A common mistake that every man is prone to make is to forget that we are sojourners upon this earth.

There is an illusion of permanence that seduces and tricks us and so we set down roots, amass fortunes, collect toys and erect sturdy structures to safeguard them.

There is a parable in the Bible about a landowner who admired his bumper crop with a swollen ego and pride. He boasted to himself, "I will tear down the old barns and build bigger ones to store my abundant grain. Then I will say to myself, take it easy for you have got it made.” It is recorded that very night death came calling with the ominous statement, "Thou fool, tonight thy soul is required of thee.”

Since life is so short and uncertain, even though we live in a brick and mortar house, immune to the threats of the "big bad wolf” we are supposed to maintain a tent mentality. A tent you can strike and fold up at a moment’s notice, and move on without any lasting attachment.

Our lives are not our own.

Our attitude and frame of mind must be accepting of and amenable to constant change. We must always be cognizant that we are on a journey to a city whose builder and maker is God who has prepared for us our mansion and permanent dwelling place.

To balance his or her opinion of himself or herself and steady his or her demeanor, each student should be required to visit a nursing home or attend a funeral before embarking on a career.

At either place or event, the true meaning of life emerges into stark reality. Here the "busyness” of life and the competitive rat race grind to a halt and come to a complete stop. You keenly realize it does not matter how big, powerful, famous or smart you once were. Here everyone is on an equal footing facing the same fate with the same result.

Pictured is a house in the community where I live. This past Saturday we attended a real estate auction for this property. It was my first. While there we learned that the adjoining parcel of land was lost to foreclosure by unconcerned heirs.

Before the procedure, the auctioneer advised the assembled crowd that there was a ten percent buyer’s premium meaning that the successful bid would be increased by ten percent before deciding the final purchase price.

The jaded congregation apparently was unimpressed with the estate as there was only one offer forthcoming in the amount of ten thousand dollars.

So all the dreams, hopes, goals, objectives ,aspirations and ambitions that flooded that house at its inception and filled every heart therein amounted, in the final analysis, to a grand total of $11,000.

Later that day, I viewed the Preakness horse race at Pimlico race track in Baltimore. With the notable exception of California Chrome, the winner, all the monies paid for the horses in the field far exceeded the value afforded all the effort and toil that that dead owner had invested in his earthly home.

On this day, it became painfully obvious and a chilling confirmation that a man’s life and destiny, as mentioned in the Gospel of Luke, do not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

It is a sobering thought and jolting sensation to consider that sometimes the worth of an animal is more precious than all the life’s labor of a human being.

The Psalmist was right to inquire, "what is man that thou art so mindful of him.”

The true tragedy, however, may lie in the fact that if he died without Jesus, everything he had accomplished on this side of death would have been in vain.

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.