And now about all this stuff...

Hi fellow Seven'ers!

That was a great meeting with great food and great conversation!  Thanks for sharing everyone.   I am actually excited as we move into phase two and start the dialog about stuff.  I think it was stuff and our accumulation of it that first drew me to this idea personally.  

For some reason I have always been particularly bothered about the parable of the rich man who was very clever.  By my standards,  he is clearly a prosperous and clever man doing well for himself but God seems to have a very different view.  I think I have for some time now lived in a state of wondering at what level is health - how much is enough,  how much is too much,  at what point am I ceasing to be in the world and am instead consuming my way into being of the world.  I think the poison of this is that it is not just in the stuff,  or the earnings, or even in the money itself - it is what all of those things do to the heart.  This passage never says the status of this rich man's salvation,  but I think we should consider it dire warning enough that Jesus (God Himself!) said, 'Foolish man'!   It is clear the message that the body and the circumstances may still be alive,  but the danger is that the heart could have died, and the spirit be condemned long before...

Then Jesus said to them, “Be careful and guard against all kinds of greed. People do not get life from the many things they own.” Then Jesus used this story: “There was a rich man who had some land. His land grew a very good crop of food. He thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my wheat and good things together in my new barns. Then I can say to myself, I have many good things stored. I have saved enough for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’ “But God said to that man, ‘Foolish man! Tonight you will die. So what about the things you prepared for yourself? Who will get those things now?’ “This is how it will be for anyone who saves things only for himself. To God that person is not rich.” (Luke 12:15-21 ERV)