“I was just a teenager,” she said, “when the Russian army invaded our village near the end of World War II. Early the next morning, we ordered on a forced march to a relocation camp taking only what we could carry. We soon began discarding our prized possessions lest we lag behind and be shot. Unfortunately scores of people fell behind and were shot because they refused to discard a single thing.
“That’s the danger of materialism,” she said, “You start out owning things and they end up owning you. Sometimes it gets so bad that you can’t give up a single thing, not even to save your life.”
No wonder Jesus warned,
“…’Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed…’”
— Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Father God, help me to hold the things of this world loosely but cling tightly to those things that have eternal value. In the name of Jesus I pray, amen.