As a little kid, one day my mom alerted my two brothers and I that we would be donating a Christmas shoebox to a child in a third-world country. She asked us each to pick out a toy of ours to donate. Now, as is only predictable for three little kids, of course, each of us picked out a toy which we never used and cared nothing for. When we brought our toys to my mom, she explained that we should pick out something that is truly special to us, but none of us were willing to part with anything we liked.
On the surface, this might sound like nothing but a typical story about three little kids with typical "me-first" approaches to life, but on a deeper level, this story resonates with all of our lives. All of us have things we aren't very willing to let go of in this life. Truth is, one day we will have to part with all of them. And it won't matter if we merely don't want to part with them--like in the story above--we will have to no matter how much we cling to them or not.
Most of us are probably familiar with the passage in Matthew 19 where a rich man comes up to Jesus and asks him what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him to go and sell all he has to the poor, and the rich man turns his back on him. Afterwards, Jesus says to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23-24, NIV)."
Keep in mind that when Jesus says "rich," he is not just talking about money. He is talking about all of life's riches--popularity, good looks, the nicest sports car, the most home runs, the most Grammy awards, etc. He is talking about all the things which threaten to become idols in our lives and distract us from him. Anything can become an idol--and that includes you.
Most of us don't like to think about death. All of us will die one day but oftentimes we get so lost in the hustle-and-bustle of everyday life that death is just an afterthought to us. Most of us don't like to entertain the idea that one day everything we have will mean nothing at all anymore. But the truth is, one day we will have to part with everything we ever owned and everything we ever accomplished in this life.
And on that day, all we will have is ourselves. It will only be us before a holy judge. No possessions or accomplishments we racked up in this life will matter. You can't take with you a bit of this life with you. In closing, I leave you with this question: what things in your life are you unwilling to part with?
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