You Can't Take It With You

This is a topic I've addressed here before and also preached and taught on so it's not new, but maybe a new way of thinking about it for some.  The idea comes from author Randy Alcorn but I've put it more or less in my own words.  

Suppose you are offered the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work in Paris, France for a period of time.  The pay you are being offered is more than you have ever or will ever be able to make again and of course the location is fantastic.  The timeline is a little fuzzy.  No one is exactly sure how long the job will last-somewhere in the neighbourhood of a few months.  The termination date will be without warning.  One day you'll be told the job is finished and you'll be immediately put on a plane for home.  In spite of these uncertainties, the job is too good to pass up.

Once you arrive in France you find that there is one more catch.  You may live however and wherever you like and purchase anything you wish, but you cannot take anything with you when you leave France and return home.  You can't bring back any money or goods of any kind.  However you can send all the money you want back home while you're still in France.  

You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.

So here's the question: How will you live while in France?  Will you find the most expensive hotel possible to live in for those few months?  Will you replace all the furniture in that hotel room with the things that better suit your tastes?  Will you buy expensive paintings and the latest electronic gadgets and a fancy sports car?  Will you eat out in expensive restaurants, soak in every form of entertainment and basically live like a celebrity?  Sounds like fun, doesn't it!

But remember, in a few months you will have to leave it all behind and you won't have anything to show for what you've spent or acquired.  Will you spend everything you get or will you send as much back home as you can so you can enjoy it there?  Will you live high on the hog for a few months or send your fortune home and set yourself up for the many years to come?

This is not a hypothetical situation for the believer in Christ.  If we let the few months in France represent our lives on earth now and the many years at home represent eternity in Heaven, we have a real-life case we need to think about.

1Timothy 6:18-19

Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

Grace, peace and happy treasure-building,

Dave