The day my father died my brothers and I emptied his room in the nursing home and loaded everything into the back of a pickup truck. Once we finished I stood back and was genuinely shocked at how everything he owned now fit into the bed of that small pickup truck — with room to spare.
Growing up I remember Daddy had so much stuff. I think he kept every Father’s Day, birthday and Christmas gift he ever received. His closets and chest of drawers were full with things that belonged to his father, suits he no longer wore or which no longer fit, old papers and pictures and mementos from his WWII days, old watches and quite possibly every pair of eyeglasses he ever owned. He had so much stuff!
He built this shed behind our house and it was packed to the rafters. There was fishing gear and tools of every kind, sawhorses and a tiller and lawn mowers in various states of disrepair. He had old cars sitting around the yard that he kept for parts. He had a small fishing boat parked in the shed that I barely remember him using. At one point there was a 1950’s Airstream camper in the back yard he was in the process of restoring. It wasn’t unusual to see a car he had picked up at a good price parked on the side of the house. He was really good at finding a good car that needed a little work, fixing it up then selling it for a small profit. I lost count of how many vehicles he bought and sold.
If I had known about them, it would have been fun to invite the team from American Pickers go through all his stuff. I bet they would have found some cool things!
Over time as daddy got older much of what he had was sold off. Some of it he gave away and much of it he just let go. When he sold the house we grew up in and moved into a smaller home, he had to get rid of a lot of his stuff. Then, when his health declined and he was forced to move into a group home, he got rid of even more. By the time he moved into a nursing home most of what he had was gone. And on the day he died what was left fit into the bed of a small pickup truck.
As I drove away that day I had two thoughts.
First, we spend so much of our life accumulating material things that we cannot hold onto. It’s just foolish. And, second, the saying is true: “You can’t take it with you.”
Jesus warned us about the folly of falling In love with things.
In Luke 12:15 He says — “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
I really like how the New Living Translation renders this: “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
Amen.
But we do tend to measure our lives by how much we possess. And we spend much of our time here in the pursuit of material things. We work hard to get that promotion so we can buy a bigger house. We work overtime to get a little more so that we can buy a big SUV. Yet, what does Jesus say? Like a newspaper headline announcing the end of the world, He writes to us in Doomsday font, all caps: “LIFE DOES NOT CONSIST IN AN ABUNDANCE OF POSSESSIONS!”
What is life — here and in eternity? Hint: it will never be found in a bigger house or better vehicle, an Instagram-worthy vacation or a jewelry box filled with shiny things.
Jesus tells us in John 17:3 precisely what this life is about:
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Life is about knowing God and His Son, Jesus Christ. If we miss out on a relationship with God and His Son, we will have missed out on the whole point of our existence.
Isn’t it silly how we expect “things” to make us feel a certain way? Why do we keep asking material things to do what only God can do? LIFE cannot be found in an inanimate object. There is no possession or amount of possessions which can ever make us feel secure or successful or loved or worthy. We’re fooling ourselves to think otherwise. Only God can make us feel that way. And we’ll be shocked one day when we realize how much of what we have accumulated we have to let go.
My dad accumulated a lot of things in his life. He had so much stuff. But I’m glad that he also found the one thing of value: a relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day this life will come to an end and we will leave our possessions behind. However, the good we have done, the love we have shown, the lost people whom we have introduced to Christ — all of that will travel with us into eternity. Knowing this should help us keep our focus on what’s really important in life.
As Jesus said:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”(Matthew 6:19-21)