Luke 16:15 (NIV) He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

Mat 6:19-21 (NIV) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where is your treasure? What do you value? This world values prestige and money. It values power. It treasures education and accomplishments. And these things are not bad of course, in themselves; they are evil only if they are our motivating factor, if we put them above God, above the people in our lives. Sometimes, even we Christians get caught up in this system. We become overly impressed with credentials, we choose jobs because of money. (I'm talking about extremes of course; we all need money!) God's value system is different from the world's. David says, "We make 'value' judgements.... the world's values or God's... its a choice we make.." What God treasures is our heart, our love for Him and each other, our service of Him and our fellowman. When Christ chose disciples, He did not choose celebrities. And Paul's devoted fellow workers were probably not on the invitation list of the parties of the upper crust of society, those our world esteems as "important."

1 Cor 1:26-29 (NRSV) Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. God wants us to treasure His Kingdom, and our families and friends.

Mat 6:33 (NRSV) But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I believe it was Barbara Bush that said (this may not be an exact quote, but it gets to the heart of it) that when we get to the end of this earthly life, we will never say "Gee I wish I had spent more time pursuing success." What is often said is something like this: "I wish I had spent more time playing with my children.