POSSESSIONS, TIME AND TREASURES

Storage Units, Jamestown, NC

A house is a pile of stuff with a roof over it.  A home is where love abides.  I recently drove past a cluster of storage units and it reminded me of renting one of these units when we were transferred to North Carolina.  Our Kansas City house like many others had a full storage basement which was touted by the builder as the best square footage value in the world.  I guess that would be true if it was put to good use, but we like so many ended up using the space to slowly and steadily store all manner of unused possessions.  We had moved my wife’s mother into an assisted living unit by this time and our basement cache included all those sentimental items of value that she no longer needed.  As life played out, neither did we.  Folks say that many times a job expands into the time available.  It turns out that also applies to the material things we possess which expand into the space that’s available.

Needless to say, when we arrived in a state where basements were not practical, the first thing we had to do was find extra storage room.  We soon found that we actually had no need for all these possessions after moving them across the country and paying to store them.  So, we began giving them away to local charities for someone who could actually use them.  In retrospect, we were paying to keep possessions that we had no need for anymore!  That’s approaching one of the definitions of insanity, which is what Jesus was referring to in his parable of the rich fool. 

Jesus taught about the man who had not learned the life lesson that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. When the country gentleman had a bumper crop, his only thought was how to keep his hold on it instead of sharing his great blessing with those in need. So, he tore down his barns and built bigger barns to hold the great harvest. His plan was to lay back, eat, drink and be merry. But that night his life was demanded of him. What a sad legacy. His great harvest was left for his heirs to divide and his legacy was that of greed and gathering for himself instead of gratitude and gracious sharing with others.

Luke also records a chance meeting between Jesus and a rich young man who had followed all the commandments and wanted to know what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus knew his heart and instructed him to sell all his possessions, give to the poor to store treasure in heaven and follow him.  The young man went away sad, because he had great wealth.  Folks don’t need to take this lesson literally and sell everything, but possessions were obviously a first priority and had morphed into a game changer.  Jesus taught people to store their treasure in heaven where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  And as with possessions, where you spend most of your time is that which you treasure most.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.