Boxes, Boxes Everywhere

A recent survey states that the average U.S. household spends $2,700 per year on Amazon. Now, I am not pointing any fingers here at anyone. In fact, this article—as in most articles and sermons—is more about my own reflection and how the Spirit is convicting me. I personally spent more than the U.S. average via Amazon last year. It is a rare day that I arrive home from work and do not see boxes on my front porch.

None of us are immune to the culture in which we live: a culture set up to make sure we are always wanting more. Now, that is not always a bad thing. God may need us to use these resources to fulfill our vocation as image bearers stewarding his creation. Online purchases also save time, which is a precious resource indeed. As I ponder and read through Scripture, during the Christmas season I am going to try using three criteria when it comes to giving the time and the resources that God has provided to me and my family.

First, what is the need or justification? Now, we can always justify any purchase or use of our time. In fact, I have gotten really good at saying, “I need this.” The rich fool had his justifications for building bigger and newer barns (Luke 12:13-21). However, greed is never the need. If you cannot justify a purchase to your pastor, best friend or the fellow image bearer holding up a sign at the stoplight, then you may need to reconsider it. The rich fool could definitely be called to build a new barn, but I doubt his priest, his best friend and the beggar at the city gates would tell him it was ok to do it in order for him to just, “take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” It is alright that some items and some uses of our time be for our recreation and Sabbath. These can be great blessings that lead us to needed rest and renewal. Yet, with every purchase and moment of our day, are we blessing others or just trying to please ourselves?

Second, imagine what you will think one year from now of this purchase or how you are using your time. Will you really use it as much as you think? Where will the item end up? I find myself buying things that I really “need,” then looking back a year later to find them sitting in a corner or on a shelf. Take a look at your online purchase history and your time usage on your phone. Wasting money and time feeds on itself, causing us to neglect what is important in order to push off what can be done today. I find that the more unorganized I am, the more I “need,” the more I purchase, the more clutter I add around me. The second law of thermodynamics tells us of a concept known as entropy: Things left alone will become disordered. Even the good things require great attention and care to keep them in order. The more organized I keep things (desk, truck, calendar, mind), the more clearly I can see the need. If I do not use it, I should give the item or my time away to bless someone else.

Most importantly, even if we have a great reason and we keep things super tidy, are we continuing to honor God with each purchase or hour of our time? The new, larger and cleaner barn in Luke’s Gospel was not in and of itself bad. Staying highly organized is not evil, either. However, if we are not grounded in Scripture, not going to the Lord in prayer and not seeking discernment through the Holy Spirit, then we will find the cleanliness and organization to be a temporary state that will end up worse than before. Just like Christ’s illustration of kicking out a demon to try and put a house in order, that alone is not enough. Christ needs to be living in the house or else the demon, along with seven of his closest friends, will just come back to a tidy home (Matthew 12:43-45). Even we who have accepted Christ into the house must continually reorder our minds and hearts for the glory of his Kingdom. We must remind ourselves daily that we organize everything and devote our time around Christ.

Are these three guidelines a comprehensive approach? Nope. There is only so much you can say in an article or a sermon. Comprehensiveness notwithstanding, it is a Scriptural approach to calibrate our minds and hearts to utilize our time and our resources for the glory of Christ’s Kingdom. This Christmas, I am going to be more intentional in generously blessing others with time and resources. It is fine for us to find boxes on our front porch; they just do not need to end up stacked in the corner or placed on the shelf next to the box I forgot I bought last year.