We came into the world with nothing and we will go out of the world with nothing.

There may not be a better premise for allowing us to live in complete and total joy in life, if we can understand and embrace it.

The problem is that people agree with this premise in principle because it’s undeniable. When you’re born you have nothing. When you die, no matter how much you had in the seconds before your death, you have nothing again. And yet we spend the entirety of the time in between those two momentsclamoring for wealth and possessions.

Below is one of my favorite quotes of all time. It comes from the great Christian pastor and author, AW Tozer.

“There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets `things’ with a deep and fierce passion. The pronouns `my’ and `mine’ look innocent enough in print, but their constant and universal use is significant. They express the real nature of the old Adamic man better than a thousand volumes of theology could do. They are verbal symptoms of our deep disease. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution.”

The answer to this is found written in the book of Philippians, chapter 4, verses 11 through 13. The words of the apostle Paul:

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (As a sidenote, notice verse 13 at the very end there. This is the verse that most people quote when they talk about starting a business or competing in an athletic match. It really has nothing to do with that. When Paul says that we can do all things through Christ, it is in direct context to being able to be content and to live with much or with little.)

I myself have had a lot and very little. I’ve lived in tiny apartments and converted two car garages. I’ve lived on an estate on 10 acres with a half a mile of riverfront, a 500 foot brick and wrought iron front fence, swimming pool and an 1800 bottle wine cellar. I’ve driven beat up all cars across the country and I’ve flown in private airplanes. I’ve stayed in a little roadside motels and I’ve stayed in the swankiest suites in the world. I have found myself wondering how I would make it to the end of the month and I have found myself wondering how I could ever spend all that money. I know what it means to have a little and I know what it means to have an abundance.

And yet joy should never come from what we have. Life has a strange way of ebbing and flowing. I’ve known poor people who are happy and have a joy that most people long for, and I’ve known wealthy people, people with more money than they could spend in 10 lifetimes, who lack joy, peace and love.

Why do we spend so much time on accumulating money and possessions when we all know when we step back from it for even just a moment that those are not the answers at all?

When I hear a poor person lamenting that they wish they had more, I hear someone who doesn’t understand that they came into the world with nothing. When I hear a wealthy person bragging about their wealth, I hear a person who doesn’t understand that he or she will go out of the world with nothing.

Either way, it is a complete missing of the point. Life isn’t about abundance in possessions. It’s about abundance in love, grace, mercy, joy, and hope.

In Luke 12:15, Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

I know that I have a lot of people reading this and that they come from a wide variety of financial situations. If you are poor or suffering hardship right now, that’s OK. Trust in God and find love. If you are wealthy and you’re reading this, that’s great, but don’t place your hope in the things of this world. Trust in God and find love.

You came from nothing and you’re on a journey to nothing. We often think that it is on the other side of death that we meet and commune with God but the reality is is that we can meet and commune with God right now.

That’s why “nothingness” is irrelevant, because in God there is everything. From a worldly perspective, we are on a journey from nothing to nothing, but from a godly perspective we are on a journey from everything to everything.

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