Be The Fruit

Idolatry Thursday – Do you have enough stuff?

by Bill Blair on 15/05/08 at 4:15 am

I read an interesting article this week in the Tennessean about the growth of the storage unit business in Williamson County here in Tennessee.  You can read the article here.

For those of you who don’t know, Williamson County is a suburb of Nashville and is one of the wealthiest counties in the country.  I live just outside of the county and do most of my work within the county so I am very familiar with it.  Williamson County is the home to many country music stars, song writers, athletes, and executives who have money that they spend on large homes.  If you took a casual drive through Brentwood and Franklin (2 prominent cities in the county), you would see many nice houses, many big houses, and quite a few “are you kidding me” houses.  The article starts out questioning why people in a county who own big houses with lots of space need so many storage units.  Why do they need more space?  I say it is because enough is just never enough.

I am not saying that it is idolatry to use a storage unit, but it would be wise to question why you use one.  We need to be mindful of trying to find our pleasure in things.  We need to be focused on serving the Lord, spending our time and money on things that will last an eternity.  Anytime we make a choice to spend our time and money on acquiring more things versus serving the Lord, we are on a path to idolatry.  Let’s see what Jesus said about this:

“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 also be.” (Matt 6:19-21, ESV)

In the article, an owner of a storage facility in Franklin was asked why there was so much growth in the storage unit business in the area and he answered: “People are narcissistic, materialistic.  They can’t part with their stuff.”  When you can’t part with stuff and have to put it into a storage facility “where moth and rust destroy,” you are placing your comfort in your stuff and not the Lord and falling into idolatry.

The desire to accumulate stuff is not just a problem for the wealthiest among us, it is a problem for all of us.  This is especially true here in America.  Let’s face it, what we call middle class in America would be wealthy in most other cultures.  Now I am not wealthy, but this week my wife and I bought a new king-size bed.  We “needed” a bigger bed to get better rest at night (a big part of the need is that our 3 year old crawls into bed with us).  I don’t think this purchase was born out of idolatry, but I think about something Jesus said:  “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).  The Son of Man had no place to lay his head, but now I have memory foam.  The temptation of “stuff” is everywhere in our culture.

We all need to be careful that we are not putting our time, money, and energy into accumulating more things.  We need to focus on serving the Lord.  Nice things are nice, but it is very to get caught up in a “need” that is only a “want.”  Be careful and be thankful for what you have.

Until next time, put God first and “be the fruit.”