U-Haul Anyone?

Posted by Denise Thompson on Jun 24, 2011 in Daily Bread | 5 comments

“He is no fool who gives what he can not keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”

My son recently moved back into his home after living with Randy and I while going through a job change. He was happy to have his own place again but moving was hard. It is amazing how much stuff we all have. While he lived with us most of his things were in storage for over two years, yet he did not miss any of the stuff he had stored and had even forgotten much of it.

My son’s experience of moving over the past weeks has caused me to reflect upon how we allow ourselves to become distracted, even lost, on our personal roads to Emmaus as a result of the things which we have allowed to capture our attention and our hearts. “Emmaus” is a metaphor of the Christian life and of both our individual and corporate journeys, our “pilgrimages”if you will, into the Kingdom of God and greater intimacy with Christ

Moving can be pretty humbling, seeing one’s life reduced to a pile of boxes and a truck load of furniture…all that work and money sitting before us packed away in boxes. Moving is also a moment of realization as truth dawns that we are all basically pack rats. Some pack rats are chasing the latest greatest technology, others are tool pack rats. Some prefer to pack antiques, while other pack rats are more intellectually oriented, hoarding books. We have “ it was a gift” pack rats, and last but not least, the general, all purpose pack rats whose homes & lives look like the returned-goods bin at the local Wal-Mart. Regardless which species of pack rat we may be, the result is the same — too many of us are pulling U-Hauls & trailers on the Road to Emmaus. Getting caught up in our things, we can become fully convinced that God has called us to pursue a lifestyle rather than a Kingdom, while Christ walks alone on the Road of Emmaus being passed and left behind by a parade of U-Hauls and trailers. As I sit and write this, I look around my place and see that I am guilty of being a pack rat. I question, “Has consumerism consumed me?” I can honestly say, of all the stuff I own, only about 25% of it is necessary for a comfortable life style. All the pretty what-nots, pictures, candles and flowers that I thought were much needed to make my home perfect are really not necessary.

We live in a materialistic society that measures personal success, importance and self-worth by the number and size of our possessions. I have seen people scared, worried and downright fearful about the change in the financial picture in America. I myself have been hit with this worry at times. However, God wants us to remember that the money we earn is all gift based. God blessed us with gifts to apply in our vocations. Some of you have gifts that bring in a lot of money. Others have always had to watch the budget carefully. However, the truth is that money is a temporary gift based on the providence of God. Money isn’t evil, my what-nots, pictures, and candles are not evil, but love and attachment to them are not priorities that give any of us the true love and security we really long for deep in our souls. We are just stewards of whatever funds that we’ve been blessed with.

Am I being a good steward, or am I a consumer hoarding the gifts of God?

God’s ultimate goal is not our material happiness. Rather, His goal is our “Christ-likeness,. His goal is to transform us from self-absorbed consumers in search of spiritual “happiness” into self-sacrificing servants willing to die to ourselves so that others might live. Jesus wants to teach us, “He is no fool who gives what he can not keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”