Don Locke: Lookin Thru Bifocals

Tue, 07/31/2018 - 7:51am — Diane Dyer

How important are our possessions... Do we own them or do they own us?

"I wouldn't take a farm in Texas for my gun, or garden tractor, or truck or whatever" I've heard people say - you have to I suppose.

I must tell you about a woman who open her home up during the Christmas Tour of Homes. Her attractive house "owned her". We call it "house proud".

At the end of the day, she was so upset about all the people traipsing through, she actually had a nervous breakdown. Did she think they wouldn't leave some tracks and a few things out of place?

The Old Testament character Job was "the greatest of all the people of the East," the Bible tells us. His possession consisted of 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys and a very large houseboat. Job lost it all.

Someone once said, not until we can lose all our worldly possessions and still be OK with that are we then really ready to live.

Job said, The Lord gave and the Lord have taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21) Job laid no wrong to God.

Ray was a jolly guy, likeable. I only knew him casually. But sadly Roy's possession owned him to the point of tragedy.

Roy and his neighbors were having a dispute over a few feet of land - 25 feet to be exact.

Either one of them could have said to the other, "What's 25 ft when we both have several acres. You go ahead and take it - it doesn't amount to a hill of beans." But neither would concede: "It's only 25 feet, but it's mine. Then the question arose, "Is it worth dying for?"

Roy allowed. "I can settle things once and for all. I'll hire a surveyor to come out, then we'll see what's what.

Roy and his wife met the surveyor when he came. They walked to the spot in question; as a surveyor was setting up his equipment, the neighbor came with a gun shot and killed Roy, Roy's wife and the surveyor...

Saddest Regards...