Rich, but poor?

Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. Life is not measured by how much one owns.” ...who will get those things you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be for those who store up things for themselves and are not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15, 20-21)

Do we own it, or does it own us? It is sometimes hard to decide which one actually is the truth, but a sure way to find out is how we react when it is taken from us. Remember Job? He had riches galore, a large family, lots and lots of herds of animals, crops in abundance - in essence, he had it all. He was a good man, known in the community to be faithful to his family, considerate of others, a good friend. Then one day, it was taken from him. He lost the crops, herds began to die, family members were lost, and he found himself sitting on a hill of dung, scraping boils on his body with a broken shard of pottery. If you or I were to face similar circumstances today, how might we react?

It took some 'talking it out with God' to get all the things off his chest he really didn't understand. He asked repeatedly why all these events were transpiring - something I know God didn't mind. He might have even began to question his faith a bit - another thing I don't think God minds us talking with him about. There are times when we just don't understand our 'losses' - times when we might call into question our own beliefs and where it is we have put our trust. If our trust has been placed in the 'things' and not in God himself, our faith will falter a lot. If we find ourselves bemoaning our 'losses', but keeping God at the center of our prayers, it is likely we have placed our faith in the Creator and not the creation.

God's plan is for us to be rich toward him - not ourselves. We can amass all manner of 'goods' and 'things' that really don't fill the empty space in our spirit but might just fill more than one empty space in our homes, garages, workshops, or storage rooms. We would be happy with our riches for a while, but the reality of the 'hole' in our spirits would still be there. We need to remember that Christ desires to fill us to overflowing with all manner of good blessings, but they begin on the inside and are not stored in garages! We might be 'rich' to some, but we are 'poor' where it really counts. Just sayin!