December 06, 2007
Treasures
In the space of three months I’ve had to close up two apartments, one belonging to my mother and the other to my sister. Both of them have had to go from one bedroom apartments to single bedroom living spaces. I’ve had to make decisions on what needs to be kept, what I know they want kept and what things we have space to keep. It’s been traumatic because everything they own is something they like and really want to keep. I know they are grieving their losses, but my house is bulging at the seams as I try to incorporate their treasures into my home. Jesus cautioned, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matt 6:19 NIV) There are days when I like to hand the keys to a thief and save him the trouble of breaking in.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Love is a difficult attitude. Out of love a person is compelled to treasure what the one loved treasures. If a person does not, then doesn’t she merely love the physical presence of the loved one? For the things that are meaningful to someone cause much of the mix and flow of thoughts and feelings of life. These thoughts, feelings, and other things happening inside the heart and mind of someone far more make her what she is than does her mere physical presence. Therefore, when a person loves someone, for that love to approach sincerity, there must be a compellation to acknowledge the value of those things the loved one treasures. For they are a part of what makes the one loved who she is, and happy. I think the chemistry of relationship is so much as to compel one to treasure those things as well.
-----But the very nature of the reality we live in begins to interfere with this pure love. You have definitely made a fine point of the effect that lack of supply has upon love. And this lack of supply is not in your heart. You would not have addressed it as a problem if you were not in some way treasuring your mother’s and sister’s possessions with them. But the lack of supply is in your garage. If it were bigger, indeed, you would have a bigger gift with which to love. But it is not. Is the supply of sympathy in your heart big enough to expand your garage, or rent a storage unit? Probably, maybe, but possibly not. I remember your discussion of the elderly sister dumped upon you a few years ago, and your meeting that service. How many other services of your dearly beloveds do you have going? Maybe your garage really has reached capacity and there is no more expansion. Maybe the path to a storage unit is out of your range. Maybe all of the services you have been performing really have left you in short supply for this one.
-----I have portrayed to you before my illustration of this world. It is like the location of a shipwreck far out in the open sea. Many are in the water and will eventually drown there. But God has supplied a lifeboat, Jesus Christ. It will hold as many as will climb aboard by their own will. But now allow me to add to the illustration. Will it hold all the possessions that everyone boarding it may desire to bring along? Of course not! As great as is the Lord’s love, and as good as is the love He teaches us to use, the love from both are still happening in a world of short supply. To possess something in the face of long supply is fine, and I think even gives the Lord joy. But to try to possess something in the face of short supply is a failure to recognize the truth about reality. It is a vanity. Therefore, the lifeboat is properly outfitted with only each person’s reasonable possessions.
-----Therein is the definition of your love for your mother and sister. To try to treasure for them what is not reasonable within the truth of the situation is actually to not love them. It is to foster in them the growth of vain attitudes and feelings. Better attitudes and feelings would come to them if they were to realize their situations and begin to give their treasures to others whom they love. Your mother’s and sister’s joy then could also be bound to something real, the delight of loved ones receiving what they might be able to put to good use, or to just treasure as mementos. Your love then has the challenge of spurring your mother and sister on to more godly attitudes.
-----But I take it from what you have blogged before, that cat does not skin easily. Worse yet, even though the reality of the situation presses hard, as must be the mounting pressures of your over stuffed garage, you can not run through that China closet like a bull. Even though the China there may be formed from rather vain attachments to now useless items, the Lord still cherishes many aspects of what’s been formed somewhat as much as do your mother and sister. One must walk gently and respectfully through the items of another’s heart. During the turning of the century at your church, you and I both saw first hand the effects of judging by one’s own self what should be important or not to another. The church leaders’ utter disregard for the feelings of those having different ideas led to a total mockery of love that continues there to this day. One must not mock love by saying you love and then trashing the elements of the acclaimed loved one’s life. But one can love her by gently and patiently convincing her that those possessions falling out of usefulness might now be exchanged for better and more useful ones. Then you merely have to hope the convincing of them will at least keep pace with the stuffing of your garage. Good luck!
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