Axioms…from my perspective

normally, i dedicate thursdays to giving some of my personal life axioms…truth that, from my perspective, is self-evident. sometimes practical. sometimes philosophical. sometimes whimsical. but truth, no less.

“possess nothing that cannot be given away, loaned, or used and abused freely.”

what a difficult value to live out! “what’s mine is mine.  what’s yours is yours…and keep your hands off mine!”  this kind of mentality is what most in our culture grow up with. on top of that, we live in a culture that defines success and reputation more by what we own that by any other value.  combine those two things together and we have created an environment where we are owned by our stuff, rather than us owning it!

years ago (as a young couple), we made a decision to do our very best  never to let our stuff control us, but to see ourselves as simply stewards of what belonged to someone else.

we believed (and still do) that everything we have is gods and is, therefore, subject to kingdom use.  we work hard to buy things that have obvious kingdom uses.  the kind of house we own, cars we drive, recreational and entertainment stuff we buy, tools and equipment we possess…even valuable (or in our case, lack of valuable) keepsakes and decorations are all, yes, all on loan to us from god and we are just stewards.

for the record,  although we try to use our resources to fund things mostly on a “need” basis, we have never been particularly amish in our approach to life and “things”.  we actually have some pretty cool stuff.  but even our cool (and more expensive stuff) is still god’s.  and because of that, it is here to be used.

nothing that we own…nothing…is “off limits” for others.  sometimes it’s hard.  sometimes we don’t want to share.  sometimes we wisdom dictates situations where we have to say “no”.  but not because our stuff owns us, but because to loan it or use it or give it away would not be prudent at that time…or with those people.  but it’s always up for discussion.

we need to be wise and take care of what we “own” the very best we can, but never, ever controlled by it.

honestly, this may be one of the most important and practical axioms that the farra’s have tried to live by…and one that has constantly reminded us to surrender ourselves to the lordship of christ and live dedicated to the kingdom.

#kingdom #ownership #stuff