You leave your mark (for good or bad) in a number of ways in a number of places. There was a perfect storm of a George Carlin bit about “stuff”, an opportunity to preach at Lakeview Covenant, and a garage(garbage) sale we were having for a mission trip on the Saturday before the sermon. Usually we were required to get the stuff taken away on the same day, but I had people load all of it into the sanctuary and pile it onstage for dramatic effect. Most people remember that sermon!! It was a sermon on stuff.
Years later Jerry Seinfeld came up with a routine that expresses much of the same sentiment. The beginning of the video has him making comments related to the fact that the studio audience just won flat screen TV’s and he makes some remarks before he starts his routine. If you want to laugh, give it a listen…
To quote the video,” All things on earth only exist in different stages of becoming garbage. Your home is a garbage processing center.”
Years of doing these garage sales was witness of all the gems that were brought home with such joy at one time and now we can only get $5 for the $100 item and most likely someone will offer $2.
The Bible tries to let us be reminded about treasures, what they are, where they are stored, what happens to stuff where moth, rust, time are hard on these. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I really do appreciate a well worn artifact from yesteryear. The innovation the one who made it, the joy for the one who used it, the stories of the past that are related to it. The ration cards my grandparents handled during WWII, the toy my dad had as a kid, the doll my mom played with, a link to what was. I can appreciate this deep longing we have to be rooted. It finds it’s expression in all of our interest in geneology and dna tests to discover our heritage. Turns out, I’m related to a portion of the world that is in real need of sunscreen!!
God invites us to be rooted in His story, His family line and it’s an exceptionally gracious invite, to be rooted and established in His love, invited into the family as an heir not an error. I hope you join us.
Truth, Grace, and Time 