Fri, August 2

What do you get for the God who has everything?

Sometimes Jesus told his parables without any interpretation or explanation – his listeners had to figure out what he was saying. And other times he gave the cheat sheet. This parable is one of those – at the end of his story about the rich man and his barns, he says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.”

That’s an intriguing command. How can we “be rich” toward the God who has it all? Who made it all? Whom we see as the Giver of all good things to us?

A central tenet of the Christian way of living is that everything we have is a gift from God – life, health, relationships, possessions, housing, food… you name it. Even what we earn is a result of our God-given intellect and abilities. Maybe the very magnitude of our indebtedness makes it difficult to see ourselves as rich enough to be rich toward the Maker and Giver of all.

So one way to be “rich toward God” is to see ourselves as rich. As blessed. As gifted. Many people are more in tune with what they believe they “owe” God than with being open to receiving the showers of blessings God desires to give us. The Good News says that God desires wholeness for us. When we’re more open to being blessed, we tend to experience that more often and more fully.

Another way to be “rich toward God” is to be extravagant toward God and God’s people, not grudging. One hour and a few dollars a week are all some people are willing to spare, figuring they need the lion’s share for living in this world. What if we flipped that and offered God all our time and money, and allocated a portion for what we need to live on? Hmmm. Numbers might come out the same, but we’d be living out of a place of faith and trust instead of scarcity and anxiety.

Being rich toward God also means being rich toward God's children - our brothers and sisters - who have less than we do, who are in need of food and clothing, housing, justice, jobs, healing, peace – and friendship, company, hope. The man in the story thought only of himself and his own supposed security. What a waste of resources!

Jesus’ story invites us into a better relationship with our abundance, neither feeling guilty about it, nor clutching it tightly – but trusting in God’s provision, in our blessedness, and eager to share it because clinging to it doesn’t make us more secure, and letting it go makes us infinitely richer.

Being rich toward God includes spending time with God, not holding ourselves away. So today, try taking a few moments and naming the gifts in your life – the big ones. Write them down if you can.

Invite Jesus to sit with you, and invite God into each of these gifts, to expand them further.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you might be holding tightly to what you have, afraid of losing it.
What areas of your life come to mind?
Invite God into those places of tightness… and then practice relaxing your grip. What would it feel like to trust in that area of your life? What might you give away, which might further free you?

I believe God desires freedom for us, above all. When we are free to give ourselves away, we are free indeed.