The “timeless” test

Even as a little boy, my husband was ambitious. While younger than any of the other boys doing the job, he had a paper route. Before he was seventeen, he worked in a retail store, had charge accounts, and managed his own money. As a teenager, he made a ten-year plan for his life.

However, his mother was both perplexed and pessimistic by his ambition. She used to tell him that he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and often predicted he would wind up working in the brick factory for the rest of his life. For years after we were married, she never knew what he did for a living because she never asked and he didn’t offer. After being manager of the construction division of an engineering company for a long time, she finally found out that her assumptions were wrong; he wasn’t on the end of a shovel doing manual labor (even though that is also an important job).

In her mind, as in others, success is often measured by rank and status in the marketplace or the size of a person’s bank account. Christians fight that value system because we know that such things do not last. We need our daily bread, but there is much that we do not need. More and more I realize that much of my ‘stuff’ is simply a space-wasting burden. If I am not using it, surely someone else can, but it takes deliberate action to do something about it.

One thought helps me: I am not an owner but a manager. The things that are in my possession are on loan from the Lord. When I die, they will not go with me. There will be a ‘next owner’ (or the trash), so I am to be a good steward, not with a tight fist.

This morning I read a few verses in John where Jesus talks about true values and His ownership of things. He said:

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand (John 3:34-35).

First, Jesus had the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I’ve been thinking about the joy that the Holy Spirit gives and how it produces contentment. If I had the fullness that Jesus has, I’d never be in want. I’d be satisfied and filled with trust in my heavenly Father, just as Jesus was. I would not worry about daily bread or struggle about having or not having stuff.

Yet Jesus also said that His Father gave all things into His hands. In context, this seems to be about spiritual matters and the souls of human beings, but other Scripture speaks of Jesus being the ultimate owner of everything, pointing again to the fact that what I have is merely on loan. He could take it back anytime, but while I have it, I’m expected to use it wisely.

As I keep reading, the next verse adds more. It says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

In another place, John wrote that “He who has the Son has life . . .” (1 John 5:12). Because of Jesus, I am complete (Colossians 2:10). He supplies all my needs (Philippians 4:19), and in Him all things are mine (1 Corinthians 3:21). Putting that together, my greatest possession is Jesus Christ. In Him, I have all that I need and I have eternal life!

How then should I deal with the stuff that God has allowed me to have? The pattern is Jesus, and as I learn of Him and let Him live His life through me, it becomes easier to forget about laying up treasures on earth. True treasure consists of anything that can go from this life into the next, including Christlike character and the souls of family and friends. The rest of it simply does not pass that test.