So What Do You Really Have to Have?

I have a lot of stuff. There's a lot more stuff I'd like to get. But I often wonder, "Just how much of this stuff do I actually need?" It's easy to think that if I didn't have all my stuff, I'd be miserable. Just imagine life without TV, DVD's, iPods, and XBox. Pretty primitive, huh? Stick with me.
Imagine your life without computers, cars, or airplanes. Wow! Now that's living in the sticks! Okay, imagine life without electricity, running water, or manufactured clothing. Ouch. That could get pretty boring, don't you think? Imagine life where everything you had you made with your own hands, and the only food you had to eat was what you had grown in your garden. I'd bet we would all be a lot skinnier!
The question is, what do we really have to have? 1 Timothy 6:6-8 gives us the answer. "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content." It says that all we really need to be content is "food and raiment."
Those two things, "food and raiment," are basically food and covering. We need food to eat and water to drink in order to live. If we don't have those things, we will die. We don't necessarily need pizza or pop or steak or lasagna; we just need some sort of nourishment.
We also need covering. We need clothes to protect us from the weather: the sun, the rain, the cold. We don't need designer clothes or even comfortable clothes; we just need something to protect us from the elements. We also need some sort of covered place where we can sleep. We need some sort of protection from rain, wind, and snow. We don't have to have the nicest house in the city; we just need somewhere to sleep.
If we have those two things, food and covering, we should be content. Everything else is extra. When we were born, we came into the world naked and without a penny to our name. When we die, we won't take any of the stuff we've accumulated with us. If we have food and covering, we ought to be content and thank God for supplying our needs.

The Most Valuable Thing in the World

Imagine if you woke up in the night to find your house on fire. In the din, you hear your parents yelling to you, telling you to get out as quickly as possible. In those few split seconds, a thought flashes across your mind: "I wonder if there's there time to grab my ________!"
You fill in the blank. What would be that thing in your room, house, or closet that you would risk life and limb to try to snag before you got out of the burning building?
Jesus put this same question to those who were following him in Mark 8:34-36. "And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, 'Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'"
Basically, he was saying that obeying Jesus Christ is the most important thing in the whole world. To support that, he asks the pointed question, "What earthly possession is more valuable than life itself?"
That's a pretty good question. What difference does it make if you have everything you want in this life and then die? Life is more valuable than any material possession. We instinctively know this: our emergency personnel cut a $25,000 car into little pieces to extricate someone trapped inside. Fire fighters may smash windows, doors, and walls in a burning house to gain entrance and search for survivors. Those who suffer from rare diseases may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars seeking treatment to either cure their sickness or extend their life.
But do we actually live that way day by day? Do we live like things are the most important thing in the world? Are we more interested in obeying God and pleasing him or getting more stuff? I hope we understand that the most valuable thing in the whole world is obeying Jesus Christ.