by Kelly Moran
for 9 August 1995
Back in July, a New Hampshire Fish and Game officer caught a man with 28 lobsters. He was taking them home to join the other 508 lobsters he was keeping in his freezer.
The man is an employee for the Portsmouth power plant. Part of his job is to clean the filtering screen in the coolant water intake every four hours.
Lobsters were sucked into the water intake and stuck at the filtering screen. His job was to remove them and release them. Instead, he packed them up and took them home every day.
He faces a $30,000 fine and a year in jail for poaching lobsters. Poached lobster! Why didn't he just boil them?
Why didn't he just take what he could eat and let the rest go? My mom would say, "His eyes were bigger than his stomach."
One more observation: where did he get freezer-space for 500 lobsters? I have to move things around just to make room for a can of frozen orange juice in my freezer. Do you think he might have even bought a freezer, or at least considered it?
Jesus once told a parable about a rich man whose farm produced a bumper crop. "He thought to himself," Jesus said, "'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."'" (Luke 12:16-19)
It sounds like the good life: The American Dream. Retire in Florida. Play golf. Hire someone to mow.
Jesus' story continues, "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'" (Luke 12:20)
Wow! It could happen to anyone. At any time. Today may be your last. But don't draw any wrong conclusions, here. There's still nothing wrong with saving a little or planning your retirement.
The thing that went wrong in the story is in Jesus' next statement: "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:21)
The "storing" isn't the problem. It's your attitude toward God. When your search for material wealth supplants your search for God, you are in trouble! When you plan for an earthly future, and make no plans for an eternal future, look out! Your allotted days on the earth will run out, and where will you be? Or as Jesus asks, "Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"
Obviously, it won't be you. You can't take it with you.
Before this parable, Jesus shares this little bit of wisdom: "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." (Luke 12:15)
What is your life? If you're not here on the earth to collect lobsters, then what for? We don't really need bigger closets. What we need is a bigger thirst for God!
What is your life? "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3)
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All Scripture references are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (unless otherwise noted).
Copyright 1995 by Kelly Moran.