My wife and I recently visited Natchez, MS and toured a couple of old beautiful mansions. They were very magnificent, but in one case the rich owner of the house died soon after his new mansion was built and in the other case, the owner died before his house was even finished. I thought it was sad that these men had spent so much money, time, and effort into their house only to die without fully enjoying it.
My wife said that it reminded her of the Biblical story of the rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger ones, not knowing that he would soon die. We see many wealthy and even poor people today spending too much of their money, time, and energy on things that don’t matter. Some people would rather be in debt with a fancy house and car than be financially comfortable. We have so many status symbols that we feel we need to have to show we are successful. Even if someone can afford to live luxuriously, how much is too much? Does a billionaire really need a mansion with 20 rooms all to himself? Does a person working a minimum wage job need to always have the latest $1000 cellphone with all the bells and whistles?
The amount of money we spend isn’t really the issue. The big issue is where our priorities are. When we put the goal of gaining possessions and maintaining a comfortable lifestyle above the goal of getting to Heaven, we can run into problems. When our priorities are out of order, our God can easily become our possessions, our popularity, or even our own self satisfaction. We may go to church every week and say we love God, but when we truly look into our inner selves, are we worshiping the trinity of me, myself, and I?
It’s fine to have nice things as long as we don’t let them get between us and God. Better yet, we should use our possessions to bring us closer to God and others. God is the only one we should try to impress. Work on building up our spiritual bank account. The good deeds we do and the love we show others carry over to our eternal life with God.
