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.”  Luke 12:15-21 (NIV)

     What do we do with our abundance? The man in this parable was so thrilled with his good crop. He knew he had more than enough to last for a long time so he made up his mind to build bigger barns to store the excess so he could take life easy from that time on. Little did he know that God had other plans and he would not live to see the next morning.

     But what do we do with our excess possessions? Build bigger barns in the form of bigger closets, bigger storage buildings, bigger homes, second homes? 

     Before I appear to be anti-rich people, let me turn on myself. My house is small in typical American standards (though fantastic in the eyes of the third world standards). We are always running out of space for the things we want at our fingertips. So what do we do? Enclose the carport and add another storage area behind our home. Are we not guilty of the same thing that Jesus faulted the rich farmer of doing? We waste money on hoarding things that might benefit others, but they are things we can’t bear to part with. They are things that weigh us down rather than lift our eyes to Jesus. I pity our children and grandchildren who may have to sort it all out one day if we don’t get around to it.

     Dear Heavenly Father, bless this mess by helping us to rise above it. Help us to trim it down to a size that blesses and honors you.

Copyright © 2008 by Janice Green

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.