Life Lessons: Thoughts About Stuff

Jim Crispin

“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 not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21).

One of my favorite keepsakes is a foul ball from my first White Sox game. I didn’t think my dad had a chance, but he hustled into the empty seats and somehow came up with the ball. To my ten-year-old delight, Dad handed the ball to me.

I suppose that most of us have treasures with little or no monetary value. In 2019, I came to see that I had more of it than I’d thought and realized two things: one, some of it can go to the curb, and two, effectively my remaining keepsakes make up a museum for which I am president, curator and, almost always, sole visitor. When the Lord takes me home, if not before, someone will take most of that to the curb as well.

What about money? Last year, my wife, Kim, and I were victims of a large and so-far-successful identity theft – a contemporary way for a thief to break in. For other assets, Jesus’ words about ruin by “moth and rust” are as poignant as ever. Most of what we can buy – automobiles, roof tiles, lawn care services, wall paint, prescription drugs, flooring, washing machines, nearly anything from Jewel or Lowe’s or Nieman Marcus will degrade or deplete over time.

For objects that appear more stable, times change. Who of us hasn’t reluctantly disposed of good-as-new but obsolete (and sometimes expensive when purchased) mechanical or electronic devices? And as others have observed, people are establishing homes without china, crystal, linens, dinnerware or heavy dark wood furniture passed from their parents and grandparents. This change can leave older folks with costly stuff that is difficult to sell (I pity the person who invested heavily in porcelain figurines in 1990) or even give away. What about stocks? We’ve had a nice run. We could get thumped any day. Or not any more than Joe Artisan in AD30 knew when someone would break into his house. What about gold or Bitcoin? Hedging is hedging, but risk is risk. Real estate? For most of Illinois it is flat or declining.

Indeed, many of our friends in and out of the church would agree that the joys of expensive possessions are limited. But for me, the arresting words of Matthew 6:19-21 are “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” I write this as a confession. In day-to-day living, my human heart does not focus on treasures in heaven. My day-to-day human heart focuses on things of this life: keep working; keep feeding the 401K till they throw me out the door; stay in this house till someone throws me out that door too.

Please, Lord, guide me to lay up treasures in heaven. The world’s material things have uncertain useful life and do not matter for heaven. Please Lord, guide me to lay up treasures in heaven.