Does God Hate Nice Stuff?

I went to a conference recently that was held in a beautiful church building — one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen, and the whole weekend you could hear people murmuring in awe over it — over the high ceilings and the beautiful woodworking and giant sliding glass doors that opened to a small pond outside.

We gushed over the coffee shop in the lobby that made good coffee (which, if you’ve been to church lately, you know is a huge accomplishment), and the beautiful, heavy furniture gathered where people could relax and talk.

It seemed everything in the building was a work of art.

Photo Credit: seier+seier, Creative Commons

But despite the oohs and ahhs and compliments about furniture and coffee and giant ceiling fans, you could almost feel the questions and judgement lurking beneath the surface. Not judgement in a mean way, just this sort of silent worry there might be something wrong with our awe of this place, or our enjoyment of it.

How much did all of this cost? I caught myself thinking. Was it wasteful? How many starving children could we feed with that money?

Here’s the catch. I think God wants us to enjoy nice stuff.

This is hard, because on the one hand, I get the impression God doesn’t want us to be extravagant or wasteful. A few years ago, I was really inspired by the story of the Rich Young Ruler from the Gospels, a story where Jesus suggests a young man sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor in order to experience the Kingdom of Heaven. Since then, I’ve tried to live more simply — giving away more than feels comfortable, committing to change my buying habits and getting out of debt.

I can’t even explain the freedom and joy I experienced by giving up my physical stuff and releasing myself from the pressure to perform with my possessions. It is heaven. No wonder this is the advice Jesus gave.

On the other hand, I just can’t bring myself to believe God hates nice things.

• • •

A few years into my experiment with living with less stuff, I got a call to live-blog for a conference in Maui. The pay wasn’t great, but all my expenses would be paid, and well, it was Maui, so I agreed. And when I arrived at the resort where the conference was taking place, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Never in my life had I experienced such luxury. I would laugh to myself each morning when I woke and walked across the resort to the tower where breakfast and coffee were served.

How was I here? How had this happened? And, if God didn’t want me to have nice stuff, how come this also felt like heaven?

I’m hesitant to believe God doesn’t want us to have nice things for a few reasons:

Nice stuff is relative. Where is the line between nice and not nice? When does something move from nice to extravagant? To me, refusing to allow myself to enjoy nice things (or even extravagant things, whatever that means to me) prevents me from fully experiencing the extravagant love and blessings of God.
Worship is about giving our best to God, and being afraid God hates nice stuff prevents me from giving my best to him. It makes me hesitate to spend money or time on nice ingredients or materials or things I worry are “frivolous.” But have you ever listened to amazing music, or eaten sublime food, or sat on a well-crafted couch and felt like you were connecting with the divine? I have.
Are resources limited? I believe there are physical resources in our physical reality that are limited. But I also believe God is infinite. And in God’s reality (the Kingdom of Heaven), resources aren’t limited. So if God is calling us to participate in his reality right now, is it possible he could be inviting us to live in such a way that resources are not limited like we think they are — both by giving and enjoying good gifts?
Guilt is not productive. Some of us have nicer stuff than others. That is an earthly reality. But feeling guilty for having nice stuff won’t make you more generous with your stuff. It will actually make you deny and hide your reality, closing your heart to others rather than opening it, which is the opposite of generosity.

My favorite passage of scripture surrounding our stuff comes from Matthew 6. In this passage, Jesus reminds us to “store up treasures in heaven” rather than on earth, where they can be stolen or destroyed. My whole life I assumed this meant that there was a line drawn between physical stuff and spiritual stuff. That physical stuff (like houses and cars and church buildings) were right now. And heavenly things would come someday.

I thought the Bible was being very clear which ones I should have and not have, what I should enjoy and what I should reject.

But now I’m not so sure that’s true.

• • •

Lately, I’ve been wondering if “storing up my treasures in heaven” is actually about investing my earthly treasures into creating realities of heaven right here and right now. In other words, using my time, energy and resources — whatever that looks like for me, within my limits — to create spaces and experiences where people feel loved and cared for, where they find healing and become whole, where everyone is invited and everyone belongs, regardless what they have or don’t have.

That feels like heaven to me. Does it to you?

So does God want us to build and enjoy elaborate church buildings? Does he care if we drive luxury cars? I’m not totally sure. I think it depends on a lot of details and circumstances I don’t know or understand. But I am sure He doesn’t hate nice stuff.

And I know He isn’t mad when I enjoy it.

Does God Hate Nice Stuff? is a post from: Storyline Blog