22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Sometimes I can almost hear the Scriptures being spoken when I read them. The word order in the original gives me a sense of suspense. When Jesus says “everything you have” I hear a dramatic pause in his voice. This is the crux of this man’s problems. The things he had had him. The only way to free himself was to focus on everything he had. Sometimes the things we have get in our way. I know that every time we move we say we have too much stuff, and every time we get rid of more things. It is a freeing time, but still very difficult. I grew up in a home where we didn’t throw things away. If it had some possible use in the future, we kept it. We kept things for years, and then suddenly we would need it and it was there. We saved money because we didn’t have to go and purchase a replacement. I have some tools (don’t let my wife know this) that I use rarely, but when I do need to use it, it is there. And having the right tool for the right job makes all the difference. We have some knickknacks that are in boxes, not too many mind you. Most of these types of things go back on the walls and find their places in each of our locations. But we still have some duplicates. We have most every needed cold medicine, even though my wife and I rarely get a cold. We have some books that we haven’t read in years, and probably never will read again, and yet we keep them. Jesus could say to us, “everything you have” and those words would carry weight. I imagine that after the pause those words “sell and give to the poor” almost took this man’s breath away. The words were so pointed and yet so healing. The words got to this man’s sticking point and offered him a simple solution. He just needed to get rid of his stuff before his stuff had him permanently. My mother is in the process of passing on important items to us kids. She and my father have been doing it for the past ten years or so. Slowly but surely she has cleared out her life and cluttered ours! No, just kidding, but you get my point. We all have to make choices about the ‘things’ in our lives. How important are your ‘things’? Maybe it is time to get rid of them.
The Arnold Journey 