I’m standing in the garage gazing at all the stuff that has accumulated since we moved here in 2007. Stuff has always been a pet peeve of mine (even my stuff). You know stuff, the stuff in the stores, the stuff in our houses, the stuff we must rent storage sheds for since there is no more room in our garages to hold it all.
This is a consumer economy, so the one message aimed at us continually in this country is that we need more stuff, and bigger stuff, and better stuff. Our stores have to be larger to hold all the new stuff as well as the old stuff. Or they start selling more stuff online so they don’t have to build bigger stores to hold it all; they can just ship from warehouses or manufacturers. Shipping companies are thriving because we are sending so much stuff from one place to another.
Stuff … walk through a mall and just look at the stuff. As I do so I usually have two thoughts … first, can I live without this; second, what would someone from a very poor village or refugee camp think about this stuff.
We have too much money in this country. We have too much greed. We fill our homes with useless pieces of things that have no meaning, purpose, or use, except to fill a desire or satisfy a whim.
Maybe I’m being too hard on us as a nation. Maybe it’s okay to be surrounded with meaningless pieces of treasure. Maybe God doesn’t mind us wasting our money, or buying bigger, newer, things constantly. Maybe.
I don’t want to be a consumer. I want to be a giver. I want to share … not just my dollars and cents, but my life, my good news, my freedom.
Luke 6:38: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
