- "It's mine?! O, Daddy, you're the greatest! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
- "Honey, I promise: I'll never want another car!"
- "Looks like the Joneses got a new car. Some people have all the luck!"
- "I went to sleep thinking about that new car and woke up thinking about it ... honey, it's a sign!"
- "We'd be crazy NOT to buy a new car!"
Ponder this picture. See a pile of crushed dreams?
Isn't it amazing how truly "temporary" and "worthless" our things are in this world? We feel like we just got to have them! And indeed we treasure them so highly -- for a little while; then the day comes when we rejoice as much at getting rid of them as we did at first getting them.
Solomon thought it over and concluded this:
"Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless -- like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere" (Eccl. 2:10-11).
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells a story about a rich man who built his life around accumulating stuff. In fact, you could say that "stuff was his god." But suddenly -- without warning -- the rich man died, left behind all of his stuff, and went away to meet his Maker.
He was, to quote God, "a fool" (Luke 12:20).
Dear friends, in this day of "cash-for-clunkers," let us live wisely!
Greg
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