What are you storing?

As this may be the last post for a while, (I will be back to one-handedness after surgery in several hours) I wanted to write this before I forget or find typing inconvenient. For close to a week, mortality has been on my mind. You might think this stems from surgery looming ahead. I'm not saying that didn't have any effect, because, although "I'm a few credits shy of a degree in medicine", clearly having any surgery has at least some chance of the patient dying. Of course, you and I are not even guaranteed our next breath, so whether you have surgery or not, there's a chance you may die tomorrow. I really started thinking about it probably from Friday on, when I went to Missouri with my mom and aunt to visit family. Part of the reason for going was the estate sale auction for my grandpa's estate. He has Alzheimer's and now lives in a nursing home. To say that my grandpa is a pack-rat would be an understatement. You see, when he was able, he liked to go to auctions and estate sales to pick up things he might need/want or just bargains in general. It was very much like the person who has to have a garage sale because they went to too many garage sales. My uncle, the executor of the estate, spent countless hours over many months going through stuff, pitching or burning the junk and setting aside the many many many things that would be sold at auction.

I'm not really sure why auctioneers have a cadence that is so hard to understand but can be understood perfectly when they're not auctioning something. Saturday, it started raining right around the time we got to the auction house. I hear that buyers get the best deals in nasty weather, and I believe it, because not a whole lot of people are going to venture out into the nastiness. That said, we were able to pick up some things (some sentimental, some not) for not much money. Maybe it was the sheer volume of items that struck me. But the more I think about it, I think it was the fact that often things were going for pennies on the dollar of what the items could be purchased for at a resale store/consignment shop. In fact, when the auctioneer couldn't draw even a $1 bid, he would lump things together to garner more interest. On a side note, that's how I temporarily acquired a porta-potty for a camper (I was bidding on something else), which I gave to my cousins' cousin, who plans to use it while hunting. "One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Before we returned home, we stopped to visit my grandpa in the nursing home. It was hard to see how far he'd gone downhill (both physically and mentally) since the last time I saw him. He had to have help getting around, and his speech that day was unintelligible. We understood words but there was no meaning. But in a nursing home, due to the size of the rooms, a patient is very limited on personal items. What a change, to go from all the accumulated stuff to a room with a few personal items. You see, "you can't take it with you."

I thought of Solomon, the richest and wisest king. He, too, found out that things don't make you happy.

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:17-19 NIV)

I thought of the rich man in Luke 12:

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." 14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." 16 And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17 He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' 18 "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' 20 "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself ?' 21 "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

 It's getting late, and my mind is starting to wander, but basically the point is

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.(Matthew 6:19-24 NIV)

 We MUST stop putting so much of our energy, time, hope, and effort towards things that are or may be considered worthless by other people. After you're gone, the stuff will probably be sold for next to nothing, and your life here will be over. We, like the apostle Paul said, must please God rather than men. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness..." (Matthew 6:33a) Store up treasures in heaven!