Each morning I wake up to the song Glorious by Maclamore. Yes, I like rap and I love Jesus, I’m not afraid to admit it. My favorite part of the song says “En guard, things are just things, they don’t make you who you are. Can’t pack up a UHaul and take it with you when you’re gone.”

That’s basically the rap translation of Matthew 6: 19-20 which says. “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”

But what does that mean? Does it mean it’s not okay to have pretty things? Does it mean it’s sinful to be wealthy? This scripture has confused and burdened me for most of my life. If I’m not supposed to store up treasure here on Earth, how do I instead store treasures in heaven?

He tells us to store up our treasures in Heaven, but HOW – tell me HOW. I’m a “tell me how and let’s get busy making it happen” kinda gal. But I’ve never been able to quite wrap my mind around storing up treasures in heaven. Almost sounds boring doesn’t it? Live with nothing here – just get by – just get through – be miserable with this life and save it all for Heaven. Is that what we’re supposed to do, just save it all for Heaven?

Gosh, I don’t think that’s what God means at all. He didn’t give you this one life to be miserable. He gave you this life to live it. Then, he provided you with blessings and opportunities to earn so that you can do awesome things and have nice things. The question is, does God get the glory for your nice things? And the even bigger question … have your nice things become more important than God? Have you filled your life so full of “things” that you not only have to work endlessly to pay for them. Now you’re working to make the payments on all the stuff you bought and you’re a slave to your things. Let’s be honest, if the monthly bills weren’t so high, you could probably work less and do more of what you really wanted, right? You could follow your passion if you weren’t paying on everything else.

I’ve been there. We worked for years to undue our pile of debt of ridiculous obligations until we were finally able to sell it all, give the rest away and move to the beach. Then we moved to the country. Then we moved to a ranch. Then we moved to the lake. But we couldn’t do any of that until we dug our way out of the mess we had made with all the things we bought.

The overwhelming majority of us are working a job we don’t love to pay the monthly payments on things we never should have bought in the first place.
That’s a trap of the enemy to keep you focused on things that really don’t matter. Where’s the legacy in that? No one will stand up at your funeral and talk about your nice car. No one will honor the multiple promotions and raises you received. WHY ARE YOU WORKING SO HARD? Is it just to buy more things? You’re going to regret that. And all those things just ruin. They get rusty, the moths eat it, and it eventually ends up on FaceBook Marketplace for sale. There’s got to be more to life.

Store up treasures in heaven. Heaven represents what’s truly important. That which is important will outlive you. What we’re talking about here is your LEGACY.

Let us be legacy minded. Let us be laser focused on spending our time, talents and treasures on things that will actually matter 5 years from now. What memories are you creating that will be treasured in the future? What investment are you making in others that will outlive you? What impact are you making here on Earth that will be talked about in Heaven. THIS IS HOW YOU STORE UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN. Do things here on Earth that will matter when you no longer walk this Earth.
When God shows you the movie of your life, will you be proud of it? Now let’s boil that down to something you can relate to more … If God showed you a movie of your life yesterday, would you be proud of it? How did you spend your time yesterday? What investments did you make yesterday? How did you make others feel yesterday? What part of your yesterday will outlive you?

Let us not get caught up in the rat trap. Let us not lose sight of what’s truly important. This life is passing and it’s passing quickly and oh how disappointing it’s going to be to get to the end of it and only have a pile of temporary pretty things that mean nothing. You can’t pack up a UHaul and take it with you when you’re gone. Store up those treasures in Heaven. Work on things that will outlive you.
Treasure people. Value relationships. Create memories. Invest in lives. Leave your legacy.

A legacy of a woman who lived well, loved wildly, and left one heck of a story that points straight to Jesus.