The Curse of Possessions

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. -Genesis 37:3

Joseph's robe was a symbol. It was a symbol of Israel's favoritism. It was a symbol of Joseph's brothers' jealousy. It was even a symbol of all Joseph was to endure in Egypt. In the original Hebrew, an acronym for the coat would stand for the trials and tribulations that were to come for Joseph.

We can place a lot of emotions on our stuff. They can symbolize our successes or lack thereof. Our belongings can trigger envy from others, even to the point of anger. Some of our stuff may not have financial value, but a lot of emotional value. The more value we place on things whether monetary or emotional, the more things we accumulate. And before long we find that we no longer own things; they own us. They take up room. They must be cared for. They must be protected from those who would take them from us. Much of it must be insured and costs us more.

I used to wish I had a large, beautiful home. And maybe it would have been better when I was raising my family. But now that it is just me and Richard, I am so happy to have a small house. The upkeep costs less. I can clean it top to bottom in a couple of hours. It has very little storage space, so I have to purge all unnecessary stuff on a regular basis. It is very freeing. I don't spend so much time maintaining a lot of things.

Joseph's coat kind of came with a curse. I think any inanimate objects that we spend a lot of money and emotion and time on comes with a sort of curse. It uses up what we should be using on others... time, emotion, money. All possessions aren't bad. And some things are important to us for different reasons, and sometimes those things cost us. But we all have stuff that is taking up room in our lives, hearts and bank accounts that simply are not necessary to our joy. Those items are the real curses.

God of Our Things,

Help us to not be owned by what we own. Amen.