Give it all away.

"And behold, a man came up to him, saing, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."
-Matthew 19:16-22

Surely, this is a story most Christians have heard many times, so much so that it has probably lost the umph the Lord intended it to have.

This young man had it all wrong... just as many of us do. He asks Jesus, "What do I need to do to get to heaven?" Jesus tells him to follow the commandments. Now why in the world would Jesus do that? Well... i'm pretty sure Jesus already knew the answer to his question and that this young man already knew the commandments. Knowing that he had followed these... Jesus tells him to be perfect and to enter into life (note: not "eternal life" just "life" - we can have life more abundantly here on earth, it doesn't just start when we get to heaven), he must sell all of his possessions and give to the poor, then truly come and follow him. WOW... Jesus bypasses the outer junk and cuts straight into this man's heart, something he is an expert at. This man couldn't truly serve the Lord because there was a barrier there... his possessions. Unfortunately, he turns away and leaves, sad.

I wonder how many of us, being faced with this same command daily, make the same choice as the rich young man... to turn and walk away, sad. I don't believe that God has called all of us to sell all of our possessions, but we must honestly ask ourselves if our "stuff" is keeping us from fully serving Christ. If it is... do we heed the call to put that aside or do we do just like this man did and leave sad. Jesus doesn't call us to renounce everything but him because he is mean and wants our lives to be miserable, he does it because he has something better to offer us. Freedom, Joy, Peace, Love, Sacrafice, Hope. Let's evaluate how much we are really treasuring our "stuff." Let's get back to treasuring the only thing that really matters and ever will matter, being servants of the Master.

Under His Mercy,
Shannon