Trying to Downsize?

A friend who is 85+ years old says, “I have enjoyed all my stuff. Now I can easily give most of it away so someone else can enjoy it.”

On the idea of our stuff and what to do with it, Jesus said not to make treasures of anything that can rot, rust or be stolen by thieves. Paul wrote much the same idea:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1–4)

Many interpret this that Christians should give away all our possessions and live frugally. I don’t see it quite like that. His words are about my heart and what I seek or treasure, not what I keep and use. However, this is not an easy line to walk. We live in a world full of stuff, much of which no one needs, yet the focus on stuff has made us a nation of consumers. The warning is to people who seldom or never think of eternal things.

This week, people in Greece jumped into the sea to escape the fire that incinerated all their possession and even family members. Some will thank God they are still alive. Others will shake their fist at Him because of all that stuff that was taken away.

As I get older, I’ve noticed an erosion of my sense of possession. Like my octogenarian friend, I don’t care about most of my stuff like I used to. The organizing experts tell you to ‘keep only what you love’ and if I did that, my house would be mostly empty. I am happy to give it away since I will be gone one day and someone else will have it, so why not now?

Yet walking in this world with a loose hand is not easy. I’ve had a long habit of valuing what I possess. Most of it does not wear out quickly and I’ve only been robbed once. Someone took an ice cream pail full of clothespins from my backyard. I was annoyed for years!

Now God is helping me take delight in passing things on, at least those things I don’t need anymore. Doing it earlier was not as easy.

Tozer points to Moses who made a choice earlier in his life. It was partly about stuff like wealth and power vs. the other choice — the uncertainty of following a God who rarely lets us see beyond the next step:

“By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.” (Hebrews 11:24–26)

The world would think Moses a fool, but as Tozer says, the surrender of my heart to materialistic values and to my stuff is a greater calamity than having it all and losing it. I am a child of God and recreated for a higher world, a heavenly place. The ways of this world and its stuff will pass and be gone forever. How sad to pin my hopes on or make my treasure from things that which will not last. Cash, comforts and conveniences are okay to have, but I cannot make them my reason for living.

^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I feel like the awkward teenage gangling through a growth spurt. I’m in this world but not of it, making spiritual matters a priority rather than anything else. I know this should have been a stronger part of life a long time ago, yet if it takes aging and hindsight to do it, that is better than heading toward the next world trying to pull a U-Haul with me.