Don’t Let Stuff Jack Up Your Stewardship

I hear people say they “ain’t shopping at no goodwill” or other similarly brilliant statements that reveal the truth about their problem with materialism.  Something about the way they say it doesn’t communicate to me that they don’t think they’re better than everybody else.  Something about the way they say communicates to me that they just think people in general “deserve” better than having to shop goodwill or yard sale as though it is some sort of human right to shop at name-brand retail stores.  They’re not only defining themselves by materialistic standards – they’re defining EVERYONE by materialistic standards.

They don’t look down on people who shop goodwill or yard sale.  They FEEL SORRY for them as though they’re cursed.  They think if they shop goodwill or yard sale that they’re denying that God has blessed them.  Some even think that accepting less than the absolute best would be poorly representing their blessing from God, as though they’re not blessed unless they’re showing it or they’re somehow higher in God’s favor.  That is probably the extreme rather than the norm, but even the norm is to somehow correlate our worth to our stuff.

The problem is the word STEWARD is being totally forgotten.  So many people are BARELY GIVING if they’re giving at all, they have NO SAVINGS, and they have MAXED OUT CREDIT.  But they have nice clothes, and don’t get me started on their cars.  Something tells me that is not the way God intended for us to manage what he’s blessed us with.

Am I saying it is wrong to have nice stuff?  No.  But it IS wrong to let stuff jack up our stewardship.

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