The Problem with Stuff

In summary of Matthew 16:26 it says, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

Bottom line:

Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but lose your life? There is nothing you can give to regain your life.

What this means to me:

It is no benefit for me to gain things in this world, yet in the process lose my soul.  There is no amount of money, nor any effort I can possibly do, to regain it.  Life is complicated enough without adding additional things to it.  The tendency is to keep adding more and more stuff into our lives. One of the big problem with stuff is, the more you have, the more it takes to take care of it all (you have to clean it, protect it, insure it, and repair it.)  It isn’t too long before the stuff I accumulate will dominate my life.  Our worldly culture values collecting and obtaining stuff.  But the Bible reminds us that life is not about things or stuff. Getting more stuff won’t make me happy.  God didn’t design me that way. I was never meant to keep collecting and collecting stuff.  Jesus modeled a very simple life. I didn’t see him collecting things. Instead He spent his time and energy on relationships — because he knew they were more important than all the stuff in the world.  Today I will consider that I don’t need to collect stuff to obtain happiness.  Collecting stuff will only side track me from what’s important.  I need to catch myself when I start dreaming about stuff and remember this.