Stuff

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

For many, they gain pleasure and importance by the car they drive, the house they live in, how they dress, how their friends appear, what organizations they belong to, how they achieve success. Sucess is measured in what you have, not who you are.

This philosophy is a perspective of just material things. It has little meaning for me. It is temporary. My dad used to say, "the day you die, as they transport your body, people will not see a uhaul behind your hearst. You can't take it with you".

On Saturday, I was again reminded of how short life is. I played for a funeral of a man who died of cancer at the age of 53, leaving behind his 14 and 10 year old daughters. It was said of him that he was a good father, a loyal husband, had an excellent work record, he set goals and attained them, he was a good friend. There was no mention of all the things he had, but who he was as a person. In summary of all who spoke, he was a good man. However, in the tribute, there wasn't one word even breathed about God, except from the words of our pastor. That is what life looks like from a human perspective. It was the saddest funeral I have ever attended! Life looks empty and void without a creator, without Jesus, without an eternal perspective.

I have wrestled in the past about the rich ruler in the New Testament found in Matthew 19. He asked Jesus what would it take for him to have eternal life. Jesus said in verse 21, If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. Then he said, I tell you the truth it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

The rich man wanted to serve both wealth and God. Material things often diverts our attention away from the things of God and leads us to trust in our own ability and merit to provide for our own needs, keeping us from trusting Him for our daily bread. As days go by, I struggle less with the things I have for everything that I have is meaningless. There are days when I wish I could go back to the days of having very little and living a simple life. When we were first married, we lived on less than $300 a month. Life didn't have a lot of extras or luxuries, but things weren't complex. It was a simple trust for daily bread, waiting for him to provide. In the past year, I have been convicted many times about using our resources to help others and not being so consumed with consuming.

A dear friend and I were talking today about how ugly people can become when someone dies or is close to dying and families have to divide the assets. Families become divided yelling, accusing each other of things that often don't even exist. Tempers flare, people think they are entitled and divisions leave relationships unrepairable all over stuff that is temporary. It happens over and over even to families where people call themselves Christ followers. In the end, you stand back and observe and think, was it so important for individuals to think so much of themselves, that in reality, they didn't even buy or work for any of the things that their parents had owned. They forget the second commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Death and the settling of an estate brings out the worst side of human beings!

In recent days I've been asking myself, what do I treasure? What means the most to me? If I knew I had only a few months left, how would I live my life? Would it be checking off my own bucket list? Would it be fulfilling my own dreams? How would I invest my time and life? When was the last time you thought about how many days you have here left on this earth? What do you want people to say about you?

I treasure most my family and the people who are true friends. Most people don't have many. Most people are either acquaintances or friends of convenience. Few would drop everything in an instance to be there in the worst of circumstances. In essence, I am saying it is people that have eternal significance to me. To know someone beneath the surface and know that they love Jesus is how I want to invest my time and life. I can't take my stuff with me, but how many people can I take with me? That is where my treasure lies!!!

What do you treasure in your heart?