My children and I are nearing
the end of the junior biography Eric
Liddell: Something Greater Than Gold.
We cheered as the great Scottish athlete made history at the 1924 Paris
Olympic Games. Then we learned about the
years that he spent as a school teacher and missionary in China. Now World War II is underway. Eric and other British people who had been
living in the Chinese city of Tientsin are about to be shipped hundreds of
miles to a Japanese internment camp:
At 7:30 P.M. on March 30,
1943, the last group of people left in the British concession gathered near the
guard house. There were about three
hundred of them, and they looked like a group of rich tourists going on an
outing. Many of the women wore heavy
mink coats and fashionable high heels.
Under their coats they wore beautifully tailored woolen suits. Pearl necklaces and diamond earrings
completed their outfits. The men wore
suits with starched-collared shirts and striped ties. They all seemed to have far too much luggage
with them. There were piles of beach
chairs, hat boxes, canteens of silver cutlery, even a set of golf clubs!
Eric couldn’t help but smile
to himself as he viewed the sight. They
all seemed to have such different ideas of what they would find at the end of
their journey, and these ideas were reflected in how the people dressed and
what they brought with them.
It
is especially the last sentence that struck me today as I muse on the
discipline of possessions: They all seemed to have such different ideas
of what they would find at the end of their journey, and these ideas were
reflected in how the people dressed and what they brought with them.
What do you expect to find at
the end of your life’s journey? Is that
reflected in how you dress and in your use of possessions?
Not
long ago I watched a brief video series entitled A Cluttered Life: Middle Class Abundance. The videos outlined the results of a study
conducted by three UCLA social scientists in middle class homes. What were the results?
- “Contemporary U.S. households have more possessions per household than other society in global history.”
- “Hyper-consumerism is evident in many spaces like garages, corners of home offices, and even sometimes in the corners of living rooms, bedrooms, the top of the dining room table, shower stalls…and it’s clearly creating some significant stress for the families, particularly the mothers.” (Interestingly, they noted that the cortisol levels of women who lived in cluttered homes correlated with their multitude of possessions.)
- 3.1 percent of the world’s children live in the U.S., and they consume 40 percent of the world’s toys. The researchers noted that many toys were retained not because the children played with them, but because the parents were sentimental toward them – the toys, not the children. In short, “The toys were toys for the parents as well as for the children.”
Many
in our society do not discipline themselves with regard to their possessions,
but godliness with
contentment is great gain. For we
brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can
carry nothing out. And having food and
raiment, let us be therewith content. But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts,
which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all [kinds
of] evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows…Charge them that are rich in this
world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 1 Tim. 6:6ff
The living God gives us the
things that we have. All things that we
have come from Him and belong to Him. Do
your possessions take priority over obedience to God? Ted Tripp, author of Shepherding a Child’s Heart, asked a group of children (I
paraphrase), “When are you more readily and more severely disciplined? When you accidentally break an antique vase
or when you speak disrespectfully to your mother?” The children all agreed that they would be
punished more severely for breaking the vase.
Such behavior gives away the allegiance of hearts, doesn’t it? Our possessions so quickly become our
gods.
I can’t help but consider this
as economies across the Atlantic falter and the dollar continues to wheeze. I’m still reading Eric Metaxes Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s father, Karl, was a
prominent psychiatrist and neurologist.
He held a life insurance policy that matured in 1923, as the German
mark freefalled. “He had made the payments
for decades, and now, because of inflation, the reward was only enough to
purchase a bottle of wine and some strawberries. When the money arrived, it was worth even
less and covered only the berries.” What
of our retirement investments, our 401Ks?
Perhaps some of those dollars could be used now, to make friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness (Luke 16), rather than hoarded in great barns,
laid up for many years (Luke 12).
Instead of trusting in uncertain riches, we’re called to use our goods for His glory. So be “rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Tim 6:18). Use your home to “show hospitality” (1 Pet. 4:9). In that way we “lay up in store for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come, that we may lay hold on eternal life.” (1 Tim. 6:19)
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