Friday, April 11

Too Much Stuff

Dr. Robert Gorrell

Reading

Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
Luke 12:18-20 (NIV)

Reflection

The late, great comedian George Carlin once said:
“You got your stuff with you? I’ll bet you do. Guys have stuff in their pockets; women have stuff in their purses… Stuff is important. You gotta take care of your stuff… A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down and see all the little piles of stuff. Everybody’s got his own little pile of stuff.”

In the parable Pastor Mark referenced Sunday, Jesus responds to a request for financial advice from someone in the crowd. He begins with a warning against greed, then offers a saying that could be paraphrased: “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” The word life appears three times in this passage—so it’s safe to say it’s pretty important.

The man in the parable asks himself, “What should I do? I have no place to store my crops.” His solution? “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.”

As Carlin puts it:
“So now you got a houseful of stuff. And, even though you might like your house, you gotta move. Gotta get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff!”

As Pastor Mark taught, it’s not the ownership of stuff that threatens our lives. It’s making stuff more important than seeing—and responding to—the needs of the people around us, especially the poor.

Jesus concludes the parable with a sobering reminder:
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (vv. 20–21)

That gets my attention. How about you?

Prayer:
Today, God, help me to see people as more important than my stuff. Amen.