Friday, December 6: 1Timothy 6- Stuff.

Possibly because I live in the US and travel extensively in developing nations, I see how much I really have compared to many in the world. Just because I see this, doesn’t mean I necessarily do much about it. Verses like 7-8 jump off the page when I read devotionally. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Paul’s picture of faithful living is so far below mine, it is hard for me to truly fathom this. We should be content with food and clothing. What about housing? What about health insurance? What about a nest egg for lean times? Retirement, cable, internet, computers, car, vacations, the list runs on and on. Didn’t Paul have parchments? Beyond his parchments I don’t recall Paul mentioning owning anything else. Other first century church pillars like Barnabas certainly owned land and houses and stuff.

I am not certain how to balance life today with what this and other texts say.

One thing I do know is that it is easy to get sucked into having stuff and my craving for things does create pressure in life. Pressure to maintain my stuff and my status. Pressure when I sense God wants me to give above and beyond and that means I can’t have some stuff.

Reading on Paul makes a poignant follow up point. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (9-10).

Ouch…

Lord, protect me from falling off the cliff of stuff… from sacrificing my life in You on the altar of stuff, possessions, things.

Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to create in me an eagerness for YOU… to know You, to serve You, to live for honoring You above everything else, even the comforts of life that stuff brings.

Praise be to You Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.