Moving from one place to another is always a challenge, no matter how many times you’ve gone through this process. My wife and I recently made a move and learned a strange but interesting lesson—and one of value to us.

As sometimes happens, there is too much stuff and not enough space. Storage sheds are one option. We laughed about what could happen if we didn’t pay our bills or fees and saw the expressions on those who won the bid so they could open our storage bin. I mean, suppose somebody bid $2,000 for our storage shed’s items and found an old microwave oven and a few boxes of Bible commentaries! We had more (oh, boy, did we more!); but honestly, what would someone do with our leftovers?

Well, we found out, and not in a way we expected. We went to the shed one afternoon to see how things had fared and saw a lock on the door! The message on the lock told us to call the office, which we did, and asked how this happened. We hadn’t been late on the payments, and we hadn’t received any notices or nastygrams from the management. Regardless, their lock was on our door and we couldn’t get into our storage unit.

The manager came by and explained that someone apparently had broken into our shed and left the door open. When the manager received word of the break in, she put a lock on our unit to keep things more secure.

We all looked around and didn’t think anything valuable was missing (except a plastic bag full of my favorite T-shirts!), but we our original lock. The trespassers had cut the lock, yet left it lying on top of a box. If they had taken anything else, we didn’t miss it, though the potential for theft was huge.

Jesus warned about this in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:19-20, when He commanded believers to stop storing things for ourselves on earth because thieves could break in and steal what we worked so hard to obtain. A lock on a storage shed is not much of a deterrent to a determined thief.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for protecting these items and the diligence of managers to prevent a more serious problem. Please deliver me from the trap of being owned by what I own, and remind me that earthly possessions are only items You’ve granted to me to be put to good use here. Remind me that I should be laying up treasure in heaven, not on this earth, and help me be a good steward of what You have given me.


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