March 9, 2016: The Treadmill of Acquisition

Luke 12:13-21

“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” (v. 15)

Take a child to a toy store for the first time, and you will not have to teach the child what to do. Thousands of hours of television advertising have already taught her that her calling in life is to consume, to possess, to amass. Take the same child to church for the first time, and she will be disoriented, confused. She will not know how to act. She will not understand the purpose of church and what it has to do with her. What does this tell us?

Greed—acquisitiveness—seems almost to be an inborn human trait. We live our lives on an endless treadmill of acquisition, frantically amassing more and more stuff. And then one day you die, and they give all your stuff away. What an odd way to live.

The rich farmer keeps racing on the treadmill, amassing more and more, oblivious to the source of all his blessings, until the voice of God comes whispering: “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (v. 20).

Get off the treadmill. It’s okay to possess things. But it’s not okay for things to possess you. It’s not okay to make accumulation the driving gear of your life.

Prayer: Father, forgive my greed.

Today’s devotional was written by Lou Lotz, the pastoral leader of Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This Lenten series comes from Words of Hope, whose mission is to build the church in the hard places through media. To learn more about the organization or subscribe to Words of Hope’s daily devotions, visitwww.woh.org.