THINGS I OWN?

“The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.” — attributed to Chief Seattle

Leviticus 25:23-24
Psalm 24
Haggai 2:6-9

Think about all the things you “own”. You have clothes, an iPod, shoes, books, a computer, a car, a surfboard and nifty North Face pack. A lot of time goes toward their acquisition and care.

Your flat screen, your PC (or Mac), your mountain bike, your oriental rug, your jewelry, your Peruvian masks. How much emotion and thought orbit these objects? How much attends to their maintenance and preservation? How much do you work to accumulate more goods, or care for the ones you have?

Who possesses whom? Maybe it’s not yours after all?

What if it all belonged to God? Your car. Your house. Your land. Your TiVo. Your Crocs, Reefs and Rainbows, as well as your Air Force Ones. He owns your boat, your X-Box, your closet of clothes, and your DVDs. This stuff doesn’t belong to you; it’s the Lord’s. The documents we call scripture refers to God’s possession of, well, everything.

In addition to the above, Psalm 50:10-11 speaks of this: “For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand (read: infinite) hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.”

If it all belongs to Him, you needn’t worry. If it doesn’t belong to you, why bear the anxiety? You can’t lose what you don’t really have.

Should you mistreat what He’s put in your hands? Certainly not, that would betray the gift. And besides, it’s not yours to abuse. So care for it without living for it. Better yet, leave things better than you found them. The master will appreciate it.

Will the world end if someone steals from you? (And yes, I’ve been robbed more than once.) No. When you held it, you did not own it; when you hold it no more, nothing has changed.

What can I do if everything belongs to God? I can share. I can give. I can use whatever shack or mansion I inhabit to care about, give to and entertain others.

I can also walk free of believing my net worth rests in perishables. What was I thinking? Now I can think of other matters, matters of real import, like people, relationships and ideas.

Either my things belong to God, or I belong to my things. Don’t fool yourself into thinking another way exists. Someone owns everything, and it is never you. Nor I.

How do my possessions own me? How do they dictate my days?
What are the implications of believing something is God’s?
If I weren’t thinking about my stuff and money, or myself, what would I think about?

Adam