Shade Tree Wisdom 7/22/10

Walking was rather pleasant this morning, cool air, a slight breeze, and quiet. Conducive to thought.

And something caught my eye as I was driving to somewhere yesterday. The light was red, and I stopped behind a Mercedes sport coupe occupied by a gray-haired couple. “Well", I thought, “here’s a couple who have had success.” Then my eye spotted their bumper sticker, printed in block letters on a light gray background, it read:

“Don’t let the car fool you,
My treasure is in heaven”.

There drove a car whose owner knew Jesus’ teaching about treasure.

Jesus taught, remember? “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupts, and thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust corrupts, nor thieves break through and steal. For, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6, 19-21.

The advice is simple, but not easily followed, is it? We tend to set different priorities. We resist because we have bills to pay, commitments to meet, costs to fund, utilities to keep serving us. So we tend to put our sharing, our giving, our charity, at the end of the ‘to do’ list. And then there are the ‘want’ things we see. Example. Got to get the iPhone 4 because it is the newest! Though my old phone serves me well.

The July 19th issue of Time gives us an article on cleaning house. The article speaks about people who hoard things, old newspapers, spent balloons, used tissue boxes, empty water bottles, other odds and ends. Hoarders have an intense emotional attachment to their stash. To neighbors, their filled porch is junk, to them its treasure. But cities are more and more trying to address the issue, for hoarding can be a health hazard, or a fire hazard. It can bring eviction. (Think piles of newspapers and magazines near a kitchen stove).

So, there are agencies to try to help. And there also are some TV shows with hoarding as the subject. Experts think this is the first step, to help hoarders over their blindness to see what their first priorities are, or ought to be.

The Child of God has his priorities right, he follows the word of Jesus Christ, and finds there is rich blessing in doing so. For you, I pray this is so, and God does send His blessing to attend His Holy Word.

GPD 7/22/10