Luke 14:25-33

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” vs. 33

As we do our picking and choosing among the verses of our scripture, words like these from Luke are quickly discarded as irrelevant. We who are so tied to our possessions can’t imagine that Jesus ever meant this except in some metaphorical sense. Yet our history as God’s people is replete with stories of those who believed with their whole hearts that verses like this were normative for a life of discipleship. One of those was Macarius, an Egyptian monk of the 4th century, who upon returning to his desert cave once found a thief loading his possessions on a donkey. Acting as though he were a helpful passerby, Macarius assisted the robber in his labor, and when the thief left with the now heavily laden donkey, Macarius praised God for having been relieved of the burden of his possessions. Legendary though this story may be, there is at its core a great truth. Material goods are frequently more of a burden than a blessing and regularly become a stumbling block in our quest for serenity. There simply is no point in spending our lives in getting more stuff! So many of us know this to be true…yet we find it incredibly difficult to choose the path of simplicity. What a blessing it is when for one reason or another we finally find relief from material burdens and can concentrate on our freedom to be!

Thought for the Day: What are the signs that my possessions have become a burden?