I stood in awe in the entryway to our storage unit, staring at the towers and towers of boxes. It was as if I opened the door to Narnia…if Narnia looked a metropolis of cardboard. This is one of FIVE units. (Granted three of them are filled with furniture.)

I went there with the soul purpose of finding coats and winter clothes. What was supposed to be a simple task turned into a 5-hour event that involved tantrums, tears, and a near death experience from thinking I could scale towers of cardboard. Thank goodness no one walked in to see me clinging midair to boxes with my limbs splayed out like a deluded Spiderman.

Tip: When storing a ridiculous amount of boxes, label ALL sides of each box so you don’t have to open every single one when trying to find a single item. This will save 5 hours of your life…and possibly your life itself.

One thought kept going…and eventually, screaming…in my mind: Why do we have so much stuff??

Living in a 23 foot trailer for 4 months in a rural town tends to bring on a new perspective on “stuff”. It requires a modified idea of essentials and nonessentials.

It begs the question: What treasures am I truly storing?

In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool who worked hard to build wealth. The man was so successful at this that he had a difficult time managing all the “stuff” he accumulated. He thought: What shall I do?

I’m sure many of us have been there. I know I was at the storage unit. You look at the clutter and think in frustration, Where am I going to put all of these things? I have no place to store it?

In the parable, the rich fool answered his own question by saying he was going to build a bigger “storage unit”. This way he could relax and enjoy the rest of his life with all his “stuff”. Right after he made his plans, he died.

So why was this man a fool?

He spent a great deal of his life building up earthly treasures instead of building up heavenly ones.

Placing our value in the things we own and believing it will be there for us to enjoy for years to come is as logical as building a house of cards to use as a decorative piece in the foyer. It simply won’t last.

I can’t tell you how many boxes are in the storage units nor can I tell you what half of them contain. I guess all those items didn’t bring me as much joy as I thought they would when I bought them. It was just temporary.

Our greatest investment strategy is found in Matthew 6: 19-21.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal., but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do no break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Where does your heart lie? Does your heart belong to the neverlasting or to the everlasting?

Songs and scriptures for times such as these: I’d Rather Have Jesus (Loretta Lynn); Graves into Gardens (Brandon Lake); Honey in the Rock (Brook Ligertwood & Brandon Lake)

Matthew 19:21 ; 1 Timothy 6:18 ; Proverbs 15:16