LiveDifferent Challenge (37): Store Up & Enjoy

Jeff and I spent the morning in our slippers digging through boxes in the garage, looking for our Christmas tree stand while Dutch ran around in his jammies playing with a broken truck I’d tried to hide in the trash.  There are some disadvantages to moving every 6 mos. to a year as we have been in the habit of doing for the last 5.5 years.  In fact, there are more disadvantages than I will name.  (Can you tell I’m looking forward to moving somewhere and STAYING for a long time?)  One of the tricky things is that you begin to realize that unpacking everything you own is an enormous waste of time and energy.  So, you begin to simply store more and only unpack the absolute necessities.  And when you store stuff, you forget where it is.  I never thought we’d still be living here during the holidays, so our Christmas stuff is somewhere in the garage.  We decided to just skip getting a Christmas tree, but then my parents gave us one for free, even dropping it off at our house. How can you pass up putting up a tree that’s already in your garage?  Plus, it’s beautiful, and we’re hosting Dutch’s 2nd birthday party and Christmas Eve at our house.  So Jeff and I forged through the garage, in search of the Christmas tree stand.  It’s long gone.  Fortunately, everyone else is done buying Christmas supplies, so everything is 50% off everywhere. So $7 got us a CHristmas tree stand and now we have 2…somewhere. 

Storing also poses difficulties because of space constraints.  I miss my garage freezer, which is still at our home in McMinnville.  I’m a cook-ahead girl, because I don’t like last minute stress and I like to always have enough food for company. So I always cook ahead meals, bread, muffins, soup, cookies, so that when busy holiday times come, I’m prepared for whatever and whoever come our way.  But this year our space is super limited, so I can’t store up much in preparation for the holidays.  Storing up definitely has its challenges.

But this week I read about a different storing up.  And with this you never ever lose anything and there is no limit to the amount you can store up for later.  First Timothy 6:17-19 speaks to every person in America, the wealthiest nation in the world: 

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 

I love that! Did you get that “take hold of that which is truly life.”  Isn’t that beautiful?  What is life?  Life is investing in eternity. That is living.  And our job, as wealthy Americans (and we all are), is to enjoy the things God gives us (not feel guilty about them), set our hope on God (not the economy), and to be generous and ready to share (open-hand and open-door).  This is how we store up treasure, which we will never lose.  This, friends, is truly life.  This is living.  This is taking hold of that which is truly life. 

In celebration of being done with school Jeff and I signed up for a free 2-week trial from NetFlix.  We will probably only get through 3 movies, though, since it takes us 2-3 nights to finish one whole movie.  By the time Dutch is in bed and we’re ready to watch it’s 8:30 and I’m lucky if I can make it to 9:30 without falling asleep. So, last night we finished watching The Bucket List.   Reflections on it deserve another entire post, but related to this topic, I was laying in bed last night thinking about what those two men thought was “truly life.”  Skydiving, experiencing the grandeur of the world, enjoying family, racing cars, eating caviar. All of those things are great. But truly living involves enjoying the goodness of God and storing up treasures for the life to come.  This is truly living, according to God’s Word.

And this is certainly applicable for this week, Christmas Week. How can you truly live this week? By freely enjoying everything God has given you.  This includes everything from corporate worship to hot cider by the fire.  This includes choosing to love instead of getting frustrated by family. This includes forgiving.  This includes stopping to savor that small slice of pumpkin pie (and perhaps choosing to stop at one slice!).  I pray that as we give, share, and enjoy God’s goodness, that everything we say and do this week would rise as worship to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come.  Merry Christmas, friends.  Store up, and enjoy.