I blew the dust off the top of the box in the attic, and my handwriting on the outside of the box read, “DO NOT THROW AWAY FOR ANY REASON.” My heart and mind raced a bit trying to remember what was inside. This box must have gotten mixed up with the others when I was moving 15 years ago and has been sitting in my attic all this time. Our new move was forcing me to clean out my full attic and now I had struck gold.
ClampI broke the tape on the box and slowly opened the lid. As I peered down in the box through the dusty light, there it was – a rock. My mind raced back in my memory to figure out where this rock came from. Was it valuable? Was it a chip off the Berlin Wall? After several minutes of holding the rock in my hand, it hit me. I had no idea where this rock came from! Obviously, at one time in my life, I had put it in this box and thought it was important because it was in the same box with a Braves seat cushion. Now it seemed ridiculous that I had a packaged rock and moved it from house to house and stored it in my attic.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21, NIV).
We spend our lives working to buy stuff and then run out of room to store it, so we build a shed. When that fills up, we pay someone across town every month to store our stuff. The self storage industry owns 2 billion square feet of personal storage and generated $22 billion last year. Not only does that mean we have a lot of broken lamps and unused exercise equipment behind padlocked metal doors, but the revenue exceeds that of Hollywood.
Don’t waste your life in 2013 spending it on trivial work to make money to buy treasures that do not matter. Use your work as a mission field and invest your time, energy, and resources in the souls of man who last for eternity. Throw out those rocks in the attic and clean out the junk around your shed. Your neighbors will be grateful. Then treasure your neighbor by loving them and tell them about the rock of your salvation, Jesus. Your neighbors will never be the same.
– Clamp is evangelism group director for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Follow Lee on twitter @leeclamp or on his blog at www.leeclamp.com.