Where Your Heart Is

Luke 12:13-15

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"  Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

We readily agree that our lives should not be about our possessions.  But Jesus warns us to watch out and be on guard.  How does living with a short-life mindset help you be on guard against greed? As you’ve thought through this over the last two weeks, are there possessions that you’ve recognized as overly important?

I have very few objects that I consider "irreplaceable." However, since my Aunt Kim's house burned down, I have often wondered: what would I want to save? I've tried to keep my pictures backed up in more than one spot. I don't think I have any pictures that I couldn't replace. So even my scrapbooks are replaceable. I could replace all of my knick-nacks... except the casts I had done of my children's hands. I never did get one done of Max's hands because every time I called to schedule it, I got an answering machine! That is kinda sad. I do have foot prints of his feet, and that's the first time I got newborn foot prints. However, are they irreplaceable?

I have the chairs from Brenda that I love... but I haven't started petit-pointing them, so they are not yet irreplaceable.

I do have some very special antiques (the hutch from my parents, my mother's sewing machine cabinet, Grandma Meek's mirror, crystal from Grandma Herrick's house), but they wouldn't be worth running into a burning house for.

I have some paintings that are valuable, but also not irreplaceable. I guess I'm doing OK on not placing items above people. I did cry the day that Asa smashed the crystal bowl from Grandma Lizzie's house. I also got angry with Xandri for breaking the heads off my Willow Tree figurines (for the second time), but I don't think I was obsessively or punishingly angry. I guess I'm doing OK at not valuing items.

I certainly am never planning to retire! I am not counting on a retirement; I know that I'll have to work as long as I can to keep health insurance. I'm just counting on God to keep me here. I've had to let my "issues" go to God, because I can't do anything more about them. I can't bear the stress sometimes of being sick all the time, always being on-guard about what I eat, what medicines I take, etc. I just have to let it go and trust that I will have faith that God will keep me here as long as He needs me here.