Wednesday - "BV"

Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him."

When I was in the Boy Scouts, I used to love to go to summer camp. Every year, my mom would go out and buy me new socks, scout shorts, and undershirts so that I would have everything I needed for that great week away in the woods. Before I could pack my gear for the summer, my mom would grab that permanent marker and write my initials on every article of clothing and equipment that entered my scout pack... One day I asked her why she was doing that and she told me it was so I wouldn't come back home with less than I left with...to show all of the other scouts what was mine...

I thought about that as I double locked my front door this morning...securely sealing away my possessions in my house. It got me to thinking...how much of my stuff do I still put my initials on? How important is it to me to identify my possessions as mine...to safeguard them from anybody who wanted to use/borrow/see them? I know that when this life is over, everything that I figuratively mark with my "initials" won't be mine any longer. Instead of leveraging my stuff to bring others closer to Christ...I will have clearly labeled my belongings as "property of me".

Anybody else still marking their stuff with their initials?

I think the right thing to do would be to change the labels on all of my stuff from "BV" to "JC"...after all isn't it all Christ's anyway? Doesn't everything belong to God from the start? I think so... It doesn't mean that I shouldn't lock my door or take care of my things...but it does mean that my perspective about my "stuff" should change. I should see that what God has blessed me with really isn't mine and isn't meant to be selfishly labelled and hoarded. Instead it is to be shared, lent, leveraged, passed along, and given to those that might need help or a glimpse into the character or Jesus.

I challenge you today to take a look at those possessions that you hold most dear. The ones with the biggest set of your initials written on them... what are you doing with the things you hold most dear? As Pastor Troy said this weekend... when it's over... it all goes back in the box... Are you ready to replace your initals with the real owner's initials? Spend this morning praying and asking God if you are being too possessive of your stuff. It's a challenging discussion, but one that might just lower your stress level and give you a fresh perspective on things.

Pastor Brian