Yesterday, I preached on Luke 12:13-21, which is known as the parable of the foolish rich man. The basic summary is this – a rich man has a bumper crop with ‘no place to store it’. Instead of giving it away, he decides to tear down his current barns and build bigger ones to store his windfall crop. God calls him a fool for trying to store up earthly wealth but not having a rich relationship with God.
Personally, I don’t have a barn to tear down. I do have a shed, and I admit that I probably have more than enough stuff already crammed into it. Most of us don’t have barns these days, but a lot of us do have storage units. In fact, as of 2018 there was 1 storage unit for every 14 people in America. Just driving around where I live, I can certainly believe it. We store a LOT of stuff, and we don’t like to get rid of it. Do I really need to hold on to those old shoes from 3 years ago or that shirt that I only wear once a year? No, but I do anyway.
We all have too much stuff, but what if we didn’t? What if instead of building bigger barns (metaphorically, of course) we instead chose to be content with what we have? What if we chose to not take on more? I have a friend who makes the effort to keep his closet limited to a set amount of clothes. If he buys a new shirt, he donates an old one. Same with shoes or pants. What if that was our practice? What if instead of holding onto more, we were content with less?
Maybe it’s time for us to learn how to live on less and use our excess to bring blessings to others.