Hi. On Sunday, I taught a lesson called “Never Enough.” A man asked Jesus to demand that his brother give him more of the family inheritance. Jesus was not too interested in the family dispute, but instead he addressed the man’s greedy heart. So, Jesus told a story about a man whose fields produced too much food to store in his barns. The solution? Build bigger barns, of course! If he was going to eat, drink, and be merry, then he would have to look out for number one. Unfortunately, the man didn’t live long enough to enjoy his reward. Then, to make matters worse, taking care of only himself didn’t earn much reward from God either. The bottom line: All that food should have been put to better use. Perhaps he could have shared it with others who were less fortunate that year. Maybe he could have sold it cheap and kept the wheels of commerce turning. Jesus’ warning was this. “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15, NIV).
So there I was, teaching kids to share what they have. That’s nice. Then, on the way home, guess how many storage facilities I passed. It was a lot. Since I don’t rent storage space, I was in the clear. (I mean, never mind the basement, attic, garage, and two sheds.) Now, I’m not here to condemn storage rental. There are lots of non-hoarding, non-greedy reasons to do it. But it still hit me, we keep a lot of stuff.
Then, this Monday morning I decided to rearrange the office/spare bedroom at my house to make it a more comfortable workspace. It wasn’t easy. Want to know why it wasn’t easy? So much stuff. As I looked around at what was in the room, I thought about where else in the house I might put some of the stuff. Alas, the other places have other stuff in them. You probably know the routine. “Do I need that? Well, I’m not using it now, but I might need it, someday. It could definitely be used…someday.”
Someday
I wonder, what does it say about us when we cannot part with things? It could be that taking care of things now—things that required work and money to purchase in the past—should be considered good stewardship. But is taking care of stuff our greatest stewardship? What else, or who else, are we meant to steward? If taking care of people is what matters most, then a lot of us, myself included, have to reconsider the stockpiling of stuff. No, I did not say to go minimalist. I didn’t say to sell everything you have and give away the proceeds. And I didn’t say that savings accounts and retirement plans are bad. They’re not. But we all know, eventually our stuff can stop serving us and we can start serving it. Building bigger storage barns, or committing more space to stuff we’re not actually using, may be a sign that we’re serving our stuff.
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
Perhaps that thing that “could be used someday,” could actually be used today, but by somebody else. My friend recently gave me some equipment, for which I am very grateful. I have used it eight of the last eleven days. Since it was not getting much use at his house, he graciously put it to use at mine! Now, as I rearrange my stuff, I wonder what I could put to better use somewhere else. Would there be greater satisfaction, contentment even, knowing that objects, supplies, tools, equipment, and even food, are being used for their intended purposes, by real people, even if not by me? According to Jesus, the answer is yes.