Luke 12:16-20, “And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”
What will happen to your ‘stuff’ when you die? Have you ever really thought about it? The baseball card collection? Your clothes? Tools? Books? Cars? Ski Boots? Will your ‘things’ be what your family treasures about you or will they be tossed away? I have attended the death-bed of many people and not once has anyone whispered in the minutes before leaving earth, “Oh I wish I had stored up more belongings!”
Jesus told a parable about a very rich man who had stored up so much food that he had to tear down his barns and build bigger ones just to manage it all. God calls him a fool. A fool! There are not many times in the Bible that we hear God call someone a fool. This scripture makes me sit up and take note. I do not want God to call me a fool; do you?
There are items in our garages, in our closets, in our pantries, in our freezers that can be a blessing to other people. We tend to hoard our things as if they will benefit us later. God calls us to help one another. Think about it; there are cold people living on the streets, and some of us have more coats in our closets than we could wear in three seasons.
Think about sharing some things you do not use by blessing others with it. Now more than ever, we have to become people aware of one another. We have to put aside our selfish, individualistic natures and start thinking about the community of God’s Kingdom. That may mean we need to view stuff and others differently.
