"Sell all your possessions": Exploring the brilliance of Christ's invitation
"I feel like lining up everything I own... and deciding what should stay and what should go."
~City and Colour, "A Pill For Loneliness"
A moment ago I became convinced -- again -- that Jesus invites us to complete and perfect happiness when he says: "Go, sell your possessions... and come follow me."
I have so many CDs. I often don't know which one to take with me when I go out. (And, yes, I listen to my music this way still.) I have a "pile" of likely over 100 CDs and feel no particular way about any of them at times. Sometimes I buy 3 or 4 or 5 at once and end up confused as to which one I should even start listening to. Buying one would have been better. But I bought too many.
Do we see the brilliance of "sell all your possessions"? Can you see its spiritual, not necessarily strictly literal, meaning?
The Bible speaks of lambs "fattened up for slaughter" (James 5:5), also of a man who "stored everything in barns" but Jesus said "You fool, today your life is being required of you." (Luke 12:13-21). I think the symbolism speaks loudly of the futility of an abundance of possessions. The lethargy of self-indulgence. The intense boredom, aimlessness, and eventual misery of a life rich in self-indulgence.
This is how we can tell to which spirit we belong: To a person living in a spirit of poverty, even keeping company with a relatively annoying person, they can find the good and find joy in the simple pleasure of companionship.
To a person living in a spirit of self-indulgence, the world is shrunken down to as big as they can imagine it... and they are slowly struggling to even imagine what to do with themselves. If we only help ourselves, it is harder for others to reach us. We have shrunk our world. Our best companions may be our barns filled with our dead goods... Dead idols that can't really keep us company.
To a person in a spirit of poverty the weather that day can be a more beautiful gift than ever, and that person they might usually not like becomes sweet company. That CD someone just so happened to give them might be such a beautiful gift. Even if it's not their favourite band they may find sweet harmony in listening to it.
In self-indulgence... the world is still shrunk, stagnant, boring.
The world is meant to be huge, and open, to us. God, who is good, made us to be interconnected, dependent on one another, not puffed up in having provided our own needs, but with our eyes to the skies, in simple joy that God will provide. And He does, again and again.
Because those who "Seek, find" and those who "Knock, the door will be opened" and those who "Ask, receive." In other words, God can make us rich in the ways that count. And in ways beyond what we can "ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20)
We want real freedom. It is the Gospel, hands down. Jesus knew what he was talking about. Even his most challenging sayings, like this one, when lived, reflected, pondered... lead you to freedom, a beautiful, simple (disarmingly simple), and awesome freedom.
This is the true romance we long for. Wandering around the world in search of an adventure we hadn't thought up ourselves.
sardO
joesardosignofthetimes.blogspot.ca
amdg
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
~ 1 Timothy 6:17
~City and Colour, "A Pill For Loneliness"
A moment ago I became convinced -- again -- that Jesus invites us to complete and perfect happiness when he says: "Go, sell your possessions... and come follow me."
I have so many CDs. I often don't know which one to take with me when I go out. (And, yes, I listen to my music this way still.) I have a "pile" of likely over 100 CDs and feel no particular way about any of them at times. Sometimes I buy 3 or 4 or 5 at once and end up confused as to which one I should even start listening to. Buying one would have been better. But I bought too many.
Do we see the brilliance of "sell all your possessions"? Can you see its spiritual, not necessarily strictly literal, meaning?
The Bible speaks of lambs "fattened up for slaughter" (James 5:5), also of a man who "stored everything in barns" but Jesus said "You fool, today your life is being required of you." (Luke 12:13-21). I think the symbolism speaks loudly of the futility of an abundance of possessions. The lethargy of self-indulgence. The intense boredom, aimlessness, and eventual misery of a life rich in self-indulgence.
This is how we can tell to which spirit we belong: To a person living in a spirit of poverty, even keeping company with a relatively annoying person, they can find the good and find joy in the simple pleasure of companionship.
To a person living in a spirit of self-indulgence, the world is shrunken down to as big as they can imagine it... and they are slowly struggling to even imagine what to do with themselves. If we only help ourselves, it is harder for others to reach us. We have shrunk our world. Our best companions may be our barns filled with our dead goods... Dead idols that can't really keep us company.
To a person in a spirit of poverty the weather that day can be a more beautiful gift than ever, and that person they might usually not like becomes sweet company. That CD someone just so happened to give them might be such a beautiful gift. Even if it's not their favourite band they may find sweet harmony in listening to it.
In self-indulgence... the world is still shrunk, stagnant, boring.
The world is meant to be huge, and open, to us. God, who is good, made us to be interconnected, dependent on one another, not puffed up in having provided our own needs, but with our eyes to the skies, in simple joy that God will provide. And He does, again and again.
Because those who "Seek, find" and those who "Knock, the door will be opened" and those who "Ask, receive." In other words, God can make us rich in the ways that count. And in ways beyond what we can "ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20)
We want real freedom. It is the Gospel, hands down. Jesus knew what he was talking about. Even his most challenging sayings, like this one, when lived, reflected, pondered... lead you to freedom, a beautiful, simple (disarmingly simple), and awesome freedom.
This is the true romance we long for. Wandering around the world in search of an adventure we hadn't thought up ourselves.
sardO
joesardosignofthetimes.blogspot.ca
amdg
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
~ 1 Timothy 6:17
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