The Stuff of Life

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Matthew 6:19-21 RSV

From birth to death the majority of us toil on this earth, to do just what He tells us not to do in this scripture.  Madison Avenue is very good at their job of convincing us that we need stuff to be more beautiful, stuff to be hipper, stuff to organize our stuff, stuff to communicate better, stuff to cook better, stuff to relax better and of course, a bigger place to keep all our stuff.  Then we need the security system to protect our stuff, and the cleaning crew to clean our bigger places and all our stuff because we're too busy working to take care of all the stuff we have.  

Many put the people in their lives second to their stuff.  Some hoard stuff that often ends up killing them.  Some walk away from all the stuff, and end up on the street.

Let's face it, stuff plays a pretty big role in our lives, because it's difficult to live here in the material world without it.  It's nice to have a roof over your head when it's snowing outside, and technology never ceases to amaze me.  Food is good, too, and us foodies enjoy having stuff to prepare it in. 

Jesus knew we need stuff here on earth, even when he told the rich man to go and sell all his possessions (Matt 19:16).  But He also knows the human propensity to get caught up in the collection of stuff, and neglect the soul.

We should never allow things to become our god, no matter how important the role they play in our lives. I learned this the hard way.  My husband and I were finally building a home on the lake. This had always been a dream, and now it was becoming reality.  And then things changed as they often do on this earth.  The bottom dropped out from under us, and we put the house up for sale and waited...and waited. 

Some very wise friends told us that God didn't want our house, He wanted us.  And the day I let go, and completely trusted that God wanted good for me whether we kept that home or sold it, was the day I learned why Jesus told that rich man to sell everything.  When we put Christ ahead of possessions, when we let go of those things this world tells us we cannot live without and put our trust completely in Him, we are free indeed, just as He promises.  

Five years later, my husband and I are still in that home on the lake.  It is still one day at a time, a daily walk trusting Him for provision.  And if things changed, as they are apt to do, and we had to leave it behind, I would be at peace with that, too. Because I know that Christ has my back, especially in the hard times.  No thing on this earth offers the comfort and the 'peace that surpasses understanding' better than trusting that Christ knows the stuff we really need.