When stuff owns you

By Pastor Daron Lindemann

I remember the garage sale of garage sales. The big day came. After people came and went, most of my stuff was still sitting in my garage. 

My wife gently pointed out that I had priced things too high. A garage sale where things don’t sell is a sign that you don’t own your stuff. Your stuff owns you. This is hard. Jesus says so.

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. … With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23,25,27). 

We’re just too big with all our stuff. We can’t fit through the door of God’s kingdom. It’s like a camel fitting through the eye of a needle. So Jesus comes through the door to us. Keep in mind how big Jesus is!

He’s bigger than the mountains. He created them. He’s bigger than the most powerful empires of the world, which crumble under the power and glory of his kingdom. He’s bigger than time, bigger than your problems, and bigger than sin and death. 

How could he fit through the eye of a needle? Jesus became small by giving up his bigness and beauty and by dying on a cross. Then he rose from the dead. 

What you cannot ever do by yourself, what is impossible, Jesus did for you. 

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About the Author

Pastor Daron Lindemann

Pastor Daron Lindemann is pastor at a new mission start in Pflugerville, Texas. Previously he served in downtown Milwaukee and in Irmo, South Carolina. Daron has authored articles or series for Forward in Christmagazine, Preach the Word, and his own weekly Grace MEMO devotions. He lives in Texas with his wife, Cara, and has two adult sons.

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