Perspective On The MountaintopSample

A Perspective On Possession

At a youth conference I went to a few years ago, the speaker asked the students to draw a new animal in their notebooks. Something never seen before. He asked them to use all their power of imagination and create something new.

The drawings were fabulous, but the speaker had an interesting point. All of the drawings were derivative. All the creatures had eyes or tentacles or legs or hair. It was a rearrangement of the animals we’ve all seen. Nothing about them was entirely unique.

This changed my perspective about what it means to create. In the truest sense of the word, I can’t really create anything. I can only rearrange the ingredients given.

The same is true of my possessions. I can’t truly own anything. I can borrow it for a time, but it isn’t coming with me when I die. I didn’t bring it with me through the womb. The Apostle Paul says in the book of Timothy, “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.” 

God is the One true creator, the proper owner of all things. We may be entrusted for a while with gifts, imagination, emotion, and skills, but in the end, it all belongs to God. The power of this truth unlocks our freedom, our participation, and our truest perspective because we are no longer trying to do the impossible, no longer stuffing a void that does not belong to us and will never be filled. Peace and truth are found in this fact: The Lord is the Lord of all.

Listen to “Today is Beautiful” by David Dunn.

To get more from this plan, read the book Yellow Balloons by Tim Dunn. You can download it from http://www.yellowballoons.net/ in the Downloads area using the passcode: Grace