Living for Stuff
“And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21
One thing our family likes to do after dinner is go for a walk together. We live a few blocks from the James River so it is always nice to walk down to the pier and watch the sunset. When we first moved to Virginia, we lived in a rental house and on our walks we noticed a house that looked like it was packed full of stuff.
As the year progressed, the house got so full that you could no longer see through the windows. What once was an open house quickly became a prison for whoever lived inside the house.
In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a man who has stuffed his heart full of stuff. In the end he tries to save himself by being comfortable and the Lord comes and separates him from his stuff.
We live in a world surrounded by good things and it is easy to start looking to those things for worth and salvation, instead of looking to Jesus. Before we know it, our stuff is more important than our God and our hearts get so stuffed with worldly things that the light of the Gospel cannot come through the windows.
Jesus never says it is wrong to have nice things and enjoy them but He did warn about making those things the center of our lives. The dangerous thing about living only for stuff is that in the end you become a prisoner to it. You feel like you cannot live without it and you take your eyes off of Jesus.
The meaning of the parable is simple- don’t count on treasures on Earth to save you, look to Jesus.