Recently my in-law’s house was struck by lightening. The result was a fairly devastating fire that left our entire family in some form of shock. I think we have all tried to process our feelings as we reflect on this incident. I think each of us would say we are NOT materialistic people and the fact no one was hurt in the fire is the important part. After all, its all just “stuff”…even the house. If that is truly the case, why does this hurt so much. This has been much more painful for my in-laws since it was their “stuff” but there is a certain amount of pain for all involved. You could see it on our friends faces as they helped us clean up. It was evident in our discussions as we tried to joke about where we would eat lunch on Sundays after church for the next year or so. Most all of our family friends are involved in ministry and many of them are involved in missions. We have seen what it is like for people to have nothing. We know there are people starving around the world. We also know that most of our personal households have at least one TV per person if not more. There is a discrepancy here that we all know exists but somehow find a way to ignore it. Should we all have a garage sale and sell all of our “stuff” and send the money to missions? Wish I had the answer to that. I don’t think it is as simple as we would like to make it out. We all have what we have. Our goal should be obedience when God prompts us to do something whether that be to give, go, or pray. He’ll sort it out if we are open and obedient to his voice.
Well, not too profound of a post. No marching orders. No clear answers. Just a call to what most of us want to do anyway…be obedient to God. Maybe incidents like this fire are opportunities for us to ponder our lot, and prepare ourselves for the next time God prompts us to action. Its just “stuff” but it is His “stuff”. For some reason he entrusted us to be responsible for His “stuff”. And YES, He does know what he is doing. (Just in case that was your next question.)
Filed under: Personal Reflection
