The problem with stuff by Rick Warren

“What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:26 NLT)

Life keeps getting more and more complicated. And, on top of that, we keep adding more and more stuff to our lives. The problem with stuff is, the more you have, the more it takes to take care of it all — the more you have to clean it, the more you have to protect it, the more you have to insure it, and the more you have to repair it. 

It isn’t too long before stuff dominates your life. My guess is you probably have more stuff than your parents did. In fact, today we have an entire industry that we didn’t even have 50 years ago. It’s called personal storage units. It’s like you don’t even have enough room in your house any more, so you have to put some of it in a storage unit and pay rent to hold all your stuff!

A lot of people think the whole purpose of life is just to collect stuff. You’ve seen the bumper sticker: “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” The truth is, “He who dies with the most toys ... still dies!”

But your life is not about things. God didn’t design you that way. You were never meant to keep collecting and collecting stuff.  

The other day on Twitter (@rickwarren), I sent this message: “When+Then” thinking is a lie: “When I get what I want, then I'll be happy.”
So how much more stuff do you need until you’re happy? In Matthew 16:26, Jesus says, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (NLT)
Jesus modeled a very simple life. You don’t see him collecting things. He spent his time and energy on relationships — because he knew they were more important than all the stuff in the world.
Talk It Over

• If someone were to look at your life, what would he say is more important to you: things or relationships?
• What do you need to change about your attitude toward things so that you can be more like Jesus?