It made me think of the story of the rich young ruler found in the Bible. It was such an important story that Matthew, Mark and Luke included it in their Gospels. It’s a story about how much of an affect “stuff” can have in our lives. I’m not talking about hoarding type “stuff”, I mean the desire to have more things, things we could do without. Here’s the story:
“And behold, a man came up to him, saying, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.’ He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘All these I have kept. What do I still lack?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” - Matthew 19:16-22.
It wasn’t the “stuff” that was keeping this young man out of Heaven, it was his faith in that “stuff”. Jesus wanted him to put his faith in Him instead of his possessions, but the rich young man couldn’t trust that what Jesus was offering was better than all that he had. Because of this, it said that the young man went away sorrowful because he was rich.
What you have is not as important as who you have! If you don’t have Christ as your personal Savior, all your “stuff” means nothing. If you have Christ, you understand that all your “stuff” belongs to Him anyway and we are just stewards of it. We will be much more willing to let go of our stuff the sooner we understand that.
Have a great day and God bless.
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