Today's Devotional

October 7, 2005

Subject:  Consumed By Consumption 

Luke 12:18 - "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods."

What if each driver in America could only have one car?  What if when we went to restaurants we only ate enough to satisfy us and not to "get full."  What if we were only allowed one "non-walk-in-size" closet for our clothes and shoes?  And what if you could only buy a house based on how large your family was?  Single couples with no children would get one bedroom and one bathroom.  Wouldn't that be crazy?  

Well, we only say crazy because the American culture is one of get more, get bigger and get more expensive things and objects.  It is a culture of consumption.  I've noticed, however, how the recent hurricanes in the Texas/Louisiana area have made many people more grateful for what they have.  Some are realizing for the first time that they can live in much more meager accommodations than they thought they required.  The astrodome, homeless shelters, churches and the like are by no means of the standard to which some who reside there now are accustomed, but they serve to teach us all an important lesson.  We don't need bigger, better or more.  

The man in the passage above was like many in our country today.  He was prosperous in his business and wanted to build bigger and greater for all of his goods.  If you remember the end of this story, he decided to do all of this and God let him know that it was his time to go and he was not ready.  Like this man, we need to be concerned about more eternal things.  The questions we need to ask before consuming more are, why do we need more?  Why do we need bigger?  Why do we need better?  If the answers to those questions exclude the purposes of God, then we don't need more, bigger or better.

Today, lets not just "get" because we can.  Lets be consumed by Him and not by consumption.

Carlen