Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Matt 6:20 (NIV)

Comparing Your Stuff – Part 3

Go to  PART 1  |  PART 2

I’ve quoted this before, but Jim Carrey has said,

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

I used to think that by the time I hit 30 I would have my big house, a great reputation, an amazing job, a walk in robe full of clothes and shoes and photos lining my wall from holidays abroad. I used to think, and sometimes I still struggle with it, that these were the hallmarks of success. But, when I turned 30, we still lived in a little old beach shack that has a hole in the floor, my wardrobe was broken and full of old clothes… And not long after 30, Jesse (husband) and I basically quit our jobs and started over. Our reputation suffered, and our confidence was tested.

When I look around at others my age, I get tempted with inadequacy and I’m plagued by caparisons. But I’m learning that the true wealth of living is not found in how high our stockpiles of homes and reputations and cars and holidays are… You can have the biggest pile of “success” and still be empty and hollow inside.

Jesus was challenging his listeners to think differently. At the time, Israel was under the occupation of Rome. Slowly two cultures were mingling. There was a lot of “us and them” talk. Comparisons. Differences. Separation. People were judged and assumptions were made based on your ethnicity, your academic level, your income, your health, and your social status. (Sounds familiar, right?) All those things that divide us and make us different from each other; all those things that we look at and make assumptions about each other on – clothes, success, reputations… all of it can be taken away in an instant. They can be destroyed by moth and rust, they can be stolen by thieves, they crash with the economy, disappear with accusation news columns. And when all that is stripped away and we are left facing each other with our bare hearts, we realise that we are in fact all the same. Beautifully broken, heartbreakingly flawed, graciously and eternally loved.

This is where we find our true value. And when we realise that it comes from within; from that eternal realm where God dwells that is in and through us and connects us all, we realise that the real treasure of life and of others is not found in the external, but in the internal and eternal. This unseen place of love and grace is a treasure house that we can draw from for our own needs, and deposit into through our own experiences of love and generosity and grace and mercy and joy; given and received. This is a sacred and safe place – Holy Spirit guarded and Christ protected; Sealed with blood, made accessible by sacrifice, and attainable by resurrection.

Comparison is the bad guy in this story. Me comparing myself with you; you comparing yourself with him; him comparing himself to someone else. The “not enough,” the “what about me,” the “at least I’m not as bad as they are,” and the “I am better than them.” Not only is comparison the thief of joy, as Theodore Roosevelt so aptly stated, but it's also the moth that eats away at our generosity and the rust that slowly corrodes our grace.

You are not your stuff. Your neighbour is not their stuff. Let’s stop comparing ourselves with others through the lens of stuff, and start sharing our treasures of love and filling each other's storehouses (hearts) with light.

Jim Carrey is right. Money is just money. It adds to your life, sure. It helps, absolutely. It's hard to live without, I know. But its possession, or lack, does not increase or decrease the treasure that is the human heart.

Go to Part 4 – Perfume and Forgiveness

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