"What all are you getting rid of?" she asked hesitatingly.
"Everything," I said.
"Are you sad?" She asked as she looked around the room at the things we own.
At one point in my life I would have said yes. Actually at many points in my life I would have said yes. Things haven’t always been easy for me to let go of. I always said to myself, “well what if I’ll need it for this, or that or when this happens.” I’ve always had an excuse for holding on to clothes I never wore anymore, sentimental items, furniture, now baby clothes and things. But one thing I’ve always desired is to live freely as a follower of Christ, willing, ready, and able to sell/give up everything at the drop of a hat to go wherever the Lord may call me.
However, my things have always somehow tied me down to a location (even if it was just a few things I have left at my parents house) I always knew I still had them. They subconsciously brought me peace and assurance of having an earthly home.
But we found ourselves at a crossroad.
We are now a family. First a family of two, now a family of three.
In the past year and change we got married, moved to Lexington, got pregnant, moved to Louisville, and had a baby. Most people do one big life change in one year but we did quite a few. I’ll credit the grace we were able to make these life changes with to Jesus. He alone has sustained us through the changing seasons. So here we are a little less than a year away from packing our things into SIX bins and moving overseas to make the Gospel known in a location that is TBD.
ONE YEAR. 365 days. 525,600 minutes. Which is going to fly by.
And now we've come to the point where we will yet again be moving. This time we’ve said “without all the stuff.” We don't want to spend the next year of our lives-before moving overseas-worrying about where we will keep all of our stuff. And we definitely don't want our stuff to become a burden on our parents for the next four years. We are tired of being tied down to things we don’t use, and don’t love. We are extremely thankful for the way our things have served us and allowed us to serve others, and with that in our hearts and minds we can give them away.
In Luke 18:22 Jesus challenges the rich young ruler who believed he had done all of the commandments and there was nothing left for him to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds and says, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Come.
Follow me.
But the rich young ruler became sad because he had so many things.
Throughout the Gospels we repeatedly hear/see Jesus talking about money and how we cannot serve both God and money, to store up treasures in Heaven, and to give sacrificially.
It is with this Scripture near to our hearts, renewing our minds, that we surrender our earthly things for the honor of our Heavenly King. And as the people keep knocking on the door to buy things from us, I'll keep telling them about the Jesus we find worthy of surrendering all for.
thankful,
LJ
