I was listening to a Tim Keller sermon the other day (I listen to the podcasts of his sermons and they are magnificent if you're looking for podcasts) and he was talking about the difference between heaven and hell. Heaven is where the individual says to God, 'Thy will be done'. Hell is where God says to the individual, 'thy will be done'. In one instance, the individual is completely casting ourselves into God's hands, trusting that the goodness and mercy of God are where one longs to be for all of eternity, believing that this alone can truly satisfy our needs and wants (pro tip: this is the correct answer).
In the other, the individual believes something else (money, in this case) can truly satisfy our needs and wants, and so the individual goes off in pursuit of that, investing one's life accumulating it, hoping that it can fill whatever void is within (pro tip: it cannot). In the end, God grants the individual the deepest longing in the soul, even though it tragically leads away from the true answer for our greatest needs, desires, and longings of the soul.
Love of money, in this case, is a root, and it grows up into something destructive that will eat away at us until there is nothing less. (important to note that it's not money -- it's the love of money -- that is the root of all kinds of evils). Notice who is doing the piercing -- we do this to ourselves when we choose to love money (or some other false god). We're causing ourselves these pangs, these sudden onsets of pain or distress -- and it doesn't have to be this way, because we have a Savior who voluntarily took all of these pangs for us, so that we could see what true love is, to look upon our beloved, suffering for us, and recognize that it is God who wants the best for us, who wants to fulfill us and satisfy us all the day long.
May we order our loves wisely, and pray for the wisdom to see where they have fallen out of order. If 'Thy will be done' is to be spoken in our final moments, may it pass from our lips and hearts as we recognize that God's will can give us impossibly more than we can ask or imagine.
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