Did you know that Minnesota is called the “Land of 10,000 lakes?” Some people (Minnesotans, of course) say that 10,000 is actually a conservative estimate. That’s a lot of lakes! This past year my husband and I were able to buy a small cabin on a lake – our own little weekend retreat.
I envisioned our family of four “getting away from it all.” My dreams for the cabin included my husband spending less time on his computer and phone and more time with the kids and me. I thought about all the special times we would spend fishing, playing games and roasting marshmallows for s’mores.
My husband, however, had a different “dream” for the cabin. Soon after the purchase was finalized, he began listing off all the people he planned to invite to the cabin. It seemed that his dream was to spend time at the cabin with pretty much everyone under the sun.
Since I’m somewhat of an introvert, you can imagine what that did to my anxiety level. As I thought about his dream I started to panic. I envisioned myself cooking, cleaning, hosting, more cooking, entertaining and then going to the store to buy groceries so I could cook some more!
His dream of sharing our cabin was invading my dream of privacy and family time (it’s hard to read a book or play a game when you’re so busy cooking)!
In Mark 10, Jesus speaks to a rich young man. He tells the young man to sell everything he has, give it to the poor and then come follow Jesus. The Bible says the man’s face fell and he went away sad because he had great wealth.
How does this relate to our cabin? The Lord is the one who blessed us with a cabin. But instead of wanting to use it to bless others, I wanted to keep it for myself. I Timothy 6:10 says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It’s not wrong to have a cabin, but loving it so much that I wanted to keep it to myself was wrong.
If we own any material possession that we can’t bear to lose, then we probably shouldn’t own it. If we own a material possession that we aren’t willing to share with others, then we probably shouldn’t own it – whether it’s a car, television, cabin, home, etc. Think of it this way; if God asked us to share it, would we?
Scripture: I Timothy 6:6-10; Mark 10:17-31
Prayer: Jesus, I know You expect me to put You first in my life. Please show me if there are any material possessions in my life that I could not bear to lose. I want to put You ahead of anything I own. I do not want to love money more than You. Please show many anything in my life that is hindering me from serving You.
No comments:
Post a Comment