Learning to Travel Light (Part 1 of 3)

I've been reading and teaching through a little book entitled "The Treasure Principle: Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving" by Randy Alcorn. While I do not agree with all of this guy's theology, the basic ideas in the book are very challenging...and freeing.

I admit it's tough to read while feeling the economic pains in the grocery store check-out lines, at the gas pumps and in the housing markets. Is it possible that part of the pain I'm feeling in the pocketbook is because I've bought into some lies about money and possessions and the place they hold in my life?

Jesus warned his listeners, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15)

King Solomon, arguably the wisest and wealthiest man in the world, observed that making possessions and material things the center of one's life was futile, like chasing the wind. Consider his observations (found in Ecclesiastes 5:10-15):

"Whoever loves money never has money enough";
(The more you have, the more you want.)

"Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless."
(The more you have, the less you are satisfied.)

"As goods increase, so do those who consume them."
(The more you have, the more people (including the government) will come after it.)

"And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?"
(The more you have, the more you realize it does you no good.)

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."
(The more you have, the more you have to worry about.)

"I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner,"
(the more you have, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it.)

"or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him." (The more you have, the more you have to lose.)

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand."
(The more you have, the more you’ll leave behind.)

Physics teaches us that the greater the mass of an object, the greater the hold (gravitational pull) the mass exerts. Money and things have mass, and mass exerts gravity, holding us in orbit (our lives revolve around) the things we possess. The more stuff we own, the greater the mass of our possessions, the greater the pull on us, setting our lives in orbit around them.

Giving brings freedom, it breaks us out of orbit around our possessions.