Gizmos and gadgets.

You'll see a ton of them if you go camping.

Over Memorial Day, I couldn't help but notice the massive amounts of stuff people trotted out to their campsites.

There were all kinds of ingenious quick-shade gizmos.  Few who lugged them out and set them up could resist the urge to hang from them cute little lights of various themes..

Then there were more traditional dining canopies—their netted walls and zippered doors defying the most eager of flies a share in a meal in the great outdoors.

I saw all kinds of cooking implements.  Things for which I have no name.  Things for which I could not even guess a purpose. Many felt the need for a full-sized gas grill.  So naturally, those were packed up, set up and fired up.

There were elaborate outdoor rugs and lawn coverings.  I saw a thousand different lawn chair designs, each more fancy than the last.  (Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration...but it sure felt that way).

All of this, mind you, for a three day weekend.  That's the thought that hit me as I saw the sweat that went into taking down and packing up all this.....stuff.  For some folks, this process took several hours!

When the Bible calls us “strangers and aliens on this earth,” shouldn't that give us pause to evaluate the gizmos and gadgets that fill our homes?

Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to rest His head.”

James 4:14 cautions us, “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

I would never presume to be your judge.   I'm struggling, like you, to understand what it means to follow Christ in the area of stuff.

I'm not sure of all the answers.

But I think for me, part of the answer has to be less gizmos and gadgets.