A few years ago we had a really big shed built at the end of our garden.
That same weekend, the sermon at church was about the man who built a really big barn to store all his stuff.* (You can find it in Luke 12:16-21)
The irony was not missed.
Unlike the man in the parable I didn’t die the same night, (or if I did, I didn’t notice) I survived to ask myself a few questions:
Do I need all this ‘stuff’? (And I don’t just mean all the half empty tins of paint and left over bits from badly thought out DIY projects).
What am I working for?
What do I really value in life?
When we die our ‘stuff’ is left behind to sit in someone else’s big shed, or line the tax man’s pockets. Thankfully though, we don’t have to rely on our wealth to save us – after all we can be rich one day and the wind changes and it’s gone; stolen, paid out in medical bills, or as it goes in this house, vet bills, and shed roof repairs.
Jesus calls us to change our focus – to see the one thing that has lasting value, that can’t rot, be lost or stolen, that is not affected by the economy; our relationship with God. That’s the only thing that will last forever.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We don’t need to buy our way into heaven; Jesus has paid that price for us – it was far too costly for us to pay ourselves!
He paid with his life then offered us eternal life as a gift.
A funeral plan might be a sensible thing to buy, but why plan for your death when you haven’t planned for your life?
*Please note there is no treasure in my shed – we keep the gold bullion under the mattress.