Every Friday I join a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt, five minutes. Unedited. The prompt this week is: Accumulate.
Accumulate – the dictionary informs me it means “to gather up little by little; to increase gradually” (merriam-webster dictionary).
Within the last month, my husband’s family moved his aunt into assisted living. She was no longer able to live alone due to memory issues.
She lived modestly in a small three room apartment. At first, it was thought a storage unit would be needed until moving day arrived.
It soon became obvious there were only a few items which would not be going to her new apartment. The rest could be quickly sold or given away.
All our lives, we work and accumulate, little by little. Do we ever realize we have more than enough? Or perhaps, too much?
Many simply rent storage units when their closets, basements, or attics can no longer contain stuff. We tend to forget what we have even stored away.
It isn’t a new issue as Jesus once shared a parable with the people of a rich man who ran out of space to store his crops. Rather than be content with what he had and share the excess, his solution was to build new and larger storehouses.
Jesus responds to him:
“So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:21, NASB)
Our aunt is quite content with the few pieces in which she furnished her new apartment. They were the pieces which brought familiarity, comfort, and a sense of home.
She has made me realize we truly do not need all that we accumulate over the years. What is important is the memories and love we store up in our hearts and minds.
Maybe that is the very point Jesus was making when He said:
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36, NASB)
A popular commercial asks, “What’s in your wallet?”
Instead we might ask ourselves today,
“What are you accumulating?”
Photo by Two Paddles Axe and Leatherwork on Unsplash
Today I may be joining: Five Minute Friday .
There was time to accumulate,
and time to give away.
Life is never steady-state,
not even for a day,
and so it does seem best to go
(at least as it pertains to me)
with the river’s steady flow
to the sunset copper sea
and let things fall now from our hands,
and just hold to remembrance
of other times and other lands,
not let them be a hindrance,
but remiders of our younger years
that God saves for us, with our salt tears.