Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: FINISH (05/26/16)
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TITLE: Moving: Finishing A Chapter in Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kate Warren
05/31/16 -
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location. It should be easy, right. If I want to give my daughter-in-law a dress, I put it in the car, drive for two miles, and give her the dress. Done! It is moved!
It should be almost that easy! When Abraham was alive, the
people lived a nomadic life, they were always packed, just take
down the tents, pack up the cooking stuff, put the kids in a cart and
off they went to their next location! Yet even then it was
complicated, those huge tents! The herds of goats and sheep alone were huge and not always cooperative.
It is no better today. Frank and I are moving, downsizing to a
retirement home. We are finishing one part of our lives and
embarking on a new chapter. We can bring little or nothing of what
we have accumulated over thirty-seven years to our new home. A
chapter in our lives finishes, the things, the stuff with it are necessarily leaving as well. That should make it easy, right? Welllllll, not exactly.
The china tea set from my great grandmother, she protected it all the way from Ireland! The flatware that is sterling silver, the desk that belonged to my grandmother, the books I have accumulated that are a necessary part of my life, not novels, mind you, but study guides, reference books. Then there are the art supplies, enough pictures to decorate two houses much less a two bedroom apartment!
As I look around me I have a mess, so much has already been
thrown out, now the decisions about what stays and what goes.
What will the kids take? Then my brother contacts me, he wants a
few things too!
Jesus told us to store up our treasure in heaven, not here on
earth. He had a really good point; not only can you not take it with
you, but it sure is a pain to move around from point A to point B!
This “stuff” concept has been driven even closer to home for
me during this particular move. Frank is in the hospital. He was
diagnosed with sepsis. I did not know if he was going to live or die.
The sepsis is gone, but there are other indications of an even more
serious problem. As I have watched my wonderful husband fight the
sepsis, beat off a high fever being packed in ice, fade in and out of
deliriousness, all this stuff has become totally unimportant. Instead of worrying about where it will fit and looking forward to seeing it
unpacked, it has become an encumbrance. This stuff is right now
not a blessing, it is a pain.
My point is, I need, we all need, to get over this having stuff!
We acquire it, accumulate it, pay a moving company a lot of
money to pack it and take it to our new location and for what? So
we can say “Look what I have?” We humans are so foolish! We so easily lose sight of what is truly important in life, sometimes even when the reality of it all is staring us in the face.
Our Savior, Jesus Christ must come first both individually and as a couple,He must be first in our lives. Our second most important thing is our spouse or family, then our job, our church; our commitment to others, the stuff will come at one point or another. The important thing to remember is that it is just stuff and worth a lot less than we would think, nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Jesus had the clothes on His back. He was a homeless itinerant
preacher. His “stuff” was in heaven and what He shared with us was
and is far more precious than the biggest diamond in the finest ring.
Each of us needs to develop a new perspective on “stuff.”
So, even if you have “stuff” that you truly need around you for
your work or hobbies, stuff that brings you joy in your home, make
sure it is there not for vanity but to give honor and glory to God. It is a lesson I am working hard to learn. On that note, would anyone like a pink and white tea set that is over one hundred years old?
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