Several years ago, when my youngest brother was getting married, we had some excitement the night before the wedding.  The mother of my, soon-to-be, sister-in-law got mad and took off with the wedding dress.  Several hours of negotiating and the dress was retrieved.  However, the families decided that we might need to have a police officer present for the wedding.  Before the ceremony started, the mom of the bride went into the lady’s room.  My grandmother, Iris Lee, followed her in and found mom’s purse on the counter.  She did a quick search for a gun, washed her hands, and then exited the bathroom.  Next, Grandma Iris walked over to the police officer and said, “you can arrest me now.  I did an illegal search of the mom’s purse, and she doesn’t have a gun with her.”  The police officer was literally stunned; he did not know what to say.  Finally, he told Iris Lee that it was “all good” and insisted that she not make this a habit.  Think about a moment when someone said something that just left you speechless.

Amy Jill-Levine in her book “The Difficult Words of Jesus” makes the comment that the writer of Mark is “stingy” with the use of the word love.  He uses it four times in one section in Mark 12.  It is the story of the scribe who asks Jesus which of the commandments is the first of all and Jesus replies with a citation of Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God . . .” and then follows that with a citation of Leviticus 19:18, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  The next two times “love” is used is a reiteration of these two commands that happens in the subsequent conversation.  Besides this passage, Mark uses the word “love” one other time – “Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . .” (10:21).  The implication is that Jesus was paying attention in the moment.  Jesus was moved by the rich man’s plight to reconcile life and death.  However, Jesus’ response caught the man off-guard and left him speechless.  Jesus told him to take a literal accounting of everything he owned, sell all of it, and then distribute the proceeds. 

There are topics that we are comfortable talking about when engaging others in conversation.  The weather, our favorite local sports teams, where we are having lunch, or grandkids.  The safe things to talk about because they don’t cost us anything or demand anything from us.  Then there are the uncomfortable things like possessions in general.  They are a tangible statement of our earthly focus and our heart’s attention.

Margaret and I have spent some time doing our estate planning.  We have our will and trust documents, powers of attorney, medical directives done.  We have moved some of our assets into the trust to fund it.  We also have a centralized filing system that will make it easy for our executors to find everything to take care of our estate.  One of the things we still need to create is an inventory of our personal possessions.  We need to make a list and designate if we want certain items to go to our kids or grandkids, or to be sold and the proceeds split.  The challenge, of course, is equity of distribution and value.  I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier to simply have our executor sell it all and just divide up the cash.  Maybe what we should really do is give away the valuables while we are alive – make the execution of the estate simple.  That is easier said than done.

A line in my head periodically rattles around in the background, “it is in dying that we find living.”  There is something to be said about the practice of sacrifice or think of it this way – suppression – having the power to tamp down the appetite to consume just because we can.  That phrase “Jesus, looking . . .” haunts me because it means that Jesus was paying attention, aware, present in the moment, and discerning.  I am not sure how capable of that I truly am, especially when it comes to thinking before I get my debit card out of my wallet.

I invite you to take time and read each of the scriptures above followed by reflection on the questions below.  Contemplate the practice of conscientious consumption and simplicity of living.  Lastly, I pray that God bless the reading of God’s Word and the meditations of your heart.

Questions to Consider this week:

• Monday:  Do you have a literal inventory of all your possessions?  For what purpose?
• Tuesday:  What are the things that you want to pass on and why?
• Wednesday:  Think about a time in your life when you had very little.  Was it a simpler time or complicated?
• Thursday:  Is there something that possessions are trying to replace or fill a void in your heart and life?
• Friday:  How much could you realistically do without?  Would your life be simpler with less? 
• Saturday:  If you had fewer material things to focus on, what would you give your attention to?

Actions for the Week:

• Head:  Define your mental and emotional need for material possessions.
• Heart:  Consider the space available in your heart and life for love of God and neighbor.
• Hand:  Create time to “look” at your possessions so you can discern how they hinder or help in the practice of discipleship.