A Beautiful Death: Your stuff is not yours
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The man in my congregation, whom I have always respected deeply, asked me, “You’re getting into woodworking right? Do you have a chop saw?” I didn’t. He said, “Well, I’ve got an extra one. Come by my house later and I’ll give it to you.” As I admired his fully-tooled shop, he mentioned how the whole shop was full of the Lord’s tools. Then, when I needed a trailer, he lent me his. He told me to use it any time. “It’s the Lord’s trailer.” He constantly uses what he has to bless the people around him, and every time someone thanks him, he’s quick to point out, “It’s the Lord’s.”
Jesus commanded his followers to deny themselves and take up their crosses to follow him. His earliest followers considered themselves as dead men. Paul claimed that he had been “crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).
This is a theme I have chosen to adopt and to embrace and emulate. My motto is, “I am a servant, and I am already dead.” Living this way will have consequences on the way we view our stuff. The simple fact is that dead men don’t own things.
The big secret about our stuff, though, is that we never actually owned anything. In the middle of a brilliantly sarcastic discourse, the Bible quips, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). In James, it claims, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). We tend to confuse the source of our stuff and give credit to the wrong person for the good things we have.
But not the man who claimed to be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20). Paul claimed in Philippians 3:4-8, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless … For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” That word “rubbish” is better translated “dung,” or less politely but more accurately, “crap.” If our best accomplishments are crap, what is the stuff we buy with the proceeds from those accomplishments. Our stuff is not that valuable compared to Christ, and we don’t own it anyways.
In Luke 16, there’s a confusing parable about a manager who took advantage of his master to make rich friends before he was fired. We often make the mistake of thinking everything in a parable represents something, like in an allegory. But Jesus summarizes his point in Luke 16:9. “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Consider yourself a steward of the Master’s things, and use that stuff to bless other people while you can.
The difference is our master wants us to bless others with his stuff. 1 Peter 4:8-10 tells us how to do this, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
Refusal to look at his stuff this way is what kept the rich young ruler out of the Kingdom. Jesus told a wealthy young man, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:21-23). He refused to give up the delusion of being the master of his things.
Don’t let your stuff stand in the way. Decide now that your stuff is not yours. Become a faithful steward who blesses other people with your stuff.