Stuff

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

This was the obvious verse for this past weekend.  On Friday I learned that my boat had a small gas leak.  I thank God that no one was hurt in some kind of accident because of it, as I am mindful of the guy who's boat exploded just a few weeks ago as he had gasoline vapors build up inside his engine compartment and they were sparked.  As Russ and I went to investigate, hoping for a leaky hose which would be easy to fix, we couldn't find a leaky hose but realized there was a deliberate slow leak.  Upon determining this, we had to remove large panels to get to one of the gas tanks where we saw the obvious corrosion on the aluminum tank.  The worst news of all with regards to cost, inconvenience, and work required for repairing.

While we are in the middle of transferring the fuel out of this leaky tank into the good tank one 5-gallon gas can at a time with a hand pump (the tank is 90 gallons, fortunately it was only half full), Russ gets a call from Reja that their freezer has quit working and everything in it is rotten.  All the fish we'd caught and cleaned, deer meat from the deer killed over winter, deer sausage, steaks, ... everything.  As much as it is to loose all that it comes with a large mess to clean up and that mess doesn't smell good.  

So, do we get angry, throw our hands up, or give up?  Has life thrown us something unfairly?  Do we fret and wonder why this happened to us?  Of course not!  This is just stuff and stuff is, in comparison to the only really important thing - a relationship with Jesus, absolutely inconsequential.  Yes, that is correct, stuff has no eternal value.  While there is a price to pay for it here in this physical world, there is no eternal price on stuff, therefore it is really worthless.  At best, it is for convenience while we exist in the physical world.

All of this is just another reminder of why it is important to keep our heart close to God.  We must search and want a closer walk with our Savior everyday.  Perspective is corrected when the Spirit of God is able to weigh upon our hearts immediately in the face of these worldly events.  I thank God that I have those around me who encourage and reflect such importance in their life daily.