People think power will make them happy. People think things will make them happy. The truth is that happiness in things only comes when there is power to enjoy them…

Eccl 6:2 “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy upon men: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them…”

Wealth and possessions, something we all strive for, even if only in some deep, dark corner of our souls where we try to suppress the fact that we’re humans with a tendency to like things made from our own hands…

I mean I definitely have that tendency, even if it’s something random like a plastic table. And being the man that I am I hesitate to admit that in that suppressed corner of my soul is a like for shopping (don’t tell anyone), albeit only in the categories of music (and things that make music), books and outdoor stuff (like plastic tables). In fact any hacker would be able to tell you I have some significant frequent flyer miles on Amazon and Kalahari. So there. I like things.

But I’ve realised that enjoyment of those things is a blessing from God. No brand, model, tech specs or discount will guarantee enjoyment of a thing. We have things, and God gives things, but as the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, we may have a world of things but enjoyment of them only comes when God gives us power to do so.

The realisation that God gives the power to enjoy things should totally shake up our perception of materialism. That things have no power on their own. That we could have any thing and it would mean nothing.

This should not be such a shock, when we consider that true joy comes from God and is in God. Joy does not exist outside of God! There is no thing that can be enjoyed, no thing on earth, no thing created by human hands, that can bring joy.

Now it may seem obvious to you that things have no power on their own, but the truth is that they do have some kind of power; the power to lock our lives into this world. We have noticed this in our Bible study group where the subject of Christianity and wealth/materialism is one of the most struggled-with topics. Not only that but the discussion of wealth and Christianity is loaded with years of conflict in the church. Christians struggle with what to do with things.

Well here it is. Things mean nothing but for the grace of God. They are like dry stones scattered about that could sprout water if God chose to do hit them with a stick. But apart from that they just sit there. And it’s up to you to determine how big a rock you wish to own and how much of your life you wish to give away to make that rock yours.

For me I believe God’s abundant love and grace and indescribable joy makes a comparison of rocks as stupid as comparing the sizes of the grains of sand in the desert. They’re pathetically small.

Posted by Rich on Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 15:37 and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.