A Big Object Lesson

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
– Hebrews 13:5

Our front driveway adjoins that of our neighbor as the two reach our cul-de-sac. In their driveway, generally there sits a nice-looking, late-model pickup truck—big enough to safely pull their large fifth-wheel trailer. For some time, parked in our driveway was our smaller, older, scratched-up pickup. However, the time had come for us to upgrade, so recently we drove home our newly purchased truck. It had nearly 100,000 miles on the engine, but we were told that was not bad for a diesel. At that point, the driveway held two comparable-looking trucks.

That equilibrium was broken dramatically a few days later when I arrived home to find a truly gigantic vehicle parked next to the neighbor’s truck. This was not just the next step up in pickups, but it looked like the front end of a commercial semi-truck. And perched high up on top of it was a small boat! The rig almost looked top heavy!

My wife and I marveled over this “giant tractor-boat combo.” Then we got to talking about the futility of trying to “keep up with the Joneses.” If we had bought our truck just to match our neighbors (which we had not), then we would have been totally outclassed! This illustrates an important point: No matter how much you have, there will always be someone else who has more. And even more important is the fact that having “things” is not the key to true happiness anyway.

Our focus verse says that we should not be covetous, but rather be content with what God has given to all Christians—that is, His presence with us. Without realizing it, we can let owning and acquiring “things” become more important to us than they should be. Yet in reality, our happiness is based on our relationship with the Lord, not in how much we possess. We are not better than other people if we have more “toys” than they do. In fact, there is a danger that if we are too focused on possessions, our relationship with the Lord will suffer, and therefore our happiness will as well.

One minister put it this way: “You can tell what a person really values by how he spends his time, his energy, and his resources [money].” May we always put the Lord first in our lives. If He allows us to have some nice things, we should be appreciative; but we never want to allow those items to become too important to us. We want to hold with a loose hand whatever the Lord allows us to have. With this attitude, whether we have little or much, we will always be content.