A few years ago I worked for another auctioneer as he sold the estate of an young man who passed away. His crew told me they could not open the front door of the house due to all the things stacked in the house. There was literally a pathway through the home with items stacked from the floor to the ceiling. The garage was the same, and they later found a storage unit filled the same way. It took 17 auctions to sell the estate!
I am often reminded of this when I am selling an estate of someone who has passed away or has moved into assisted living. You can tell a lot about a person from the things they've accumulated in life. You get a feel for what was important to them.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with accumulating nice things. There is nothing wrong with wealth or having possessions as long as they don't have you. It isn't money that is the root of all evil; it's the love of money that is the problem. It is the love of one's possessions that is the problem. It's when we try to hold on too tightly to things that bring difficulty. One of the things I've learned as an auctioneer is that at the end they are just all things that will go to the highest bidder.
Every day we are trading our lives for something. We trade our time for a paycheck. We trade our money for things we need or want. Sometimes we trade our hopes and dreams for other things. We trade our independence for relationships with others. Some make bad trades and end up paying for them. Some trades work out well and bring us great joy and blessing.
One thing we never want to trade away is the opportunity for a relationship with Jesus Christ. That relationship is the pearl of great price spoken of in the Bible. Many want to go through life ignoring that relationship until later, and some never return to it. When it is too late they find they made the worst trade of all. Don't let that happen to you.
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