My former youth minister once posed this question: If your house was on fire and you had time to grab one – and only one – item to take with you, what would you get?  I felt really gypped by that scenario, because while my 20/20-sighted friends began listing sentimental and valuable things like photo albums, pets, jewelry, etc., I knew that the first and only thing I would be able to take with me in that situation would be my glasses. If I didn’t grab those from my bedside, then I might not even make it out of the house, much less with anything in tow!

I was reminded of that question this week, because two of my friends knew either friends or family who lost everything they owned in house fires in recent days. I do not own many things of high monetary value, but I do have some very sentimental things that I would be devastated to lose, like my grandmother’s ring, the porcelain doll that my brother bought for me, the boys’ baby outfits displayed in shadow boxes on the wall and a handmade gift from one of my old students in China. Those things may not all be expensive, but they are irreplaceable.

The apostle Paul knew what it was like to lose – or even give up – valuable things in life. He shared these encouraging words with the church in Corinth: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, MSG).

I think what Paul is saying is that sometimes we hold too tightly to the stuff in our lives. That “stuff” may be valuables, but it could also be unhealthy relationships, wayward ambitions or anything else that we have bought/earned/achieved/obtained in our own power. When the world presses in on us and things seem to go up in smoke (literally or figuratively), what are we left with?

If all we have for security is that “stuff,” then we are left with absolutely nothing. But, if the foundation of our lives is Christ, then there is no trial so tough that the enemy can overpower us, because our hope is in Jesus, not ourselves. As Paul suggested to the Corinthians, we need to “… fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (4:18).