Days Like Grass

God has been teaching me a lot recently about how how temporary our possessions are as well as our own lives. To first set the mood, consider Psalm 103:15-16

"As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place knows it no more."

God has been wrecking one possession after another for the past few weeks. The two big ones are: (1) the top tube of my road bike cracked (pray that Cannondale actually honors their warranty - that's a huge unplanned financial hit there if they don't), (2) someone carelessly swung their door into the passenger door of my formerly dent-free car - I know it's just a dent, but it paints a painful reality that it's not going to be brand new forever.

He has also been showing me how brief life is. My weeks have been flying by since I started work. Before I knew it, I'd been working for 6 weeks. Each weekend seems to come before I even realize what day it is. Life has just been flying by. I've really been enjoying myself...so much so that I've (at least temporarily) been cured of the Mondays. There's also something about working full time after college that really feels like the last stop before we check out. I'm only 23, but it feels like I'm in the final stage of life (even if that's usually a rather long stage). I'm also starting to feel physically older: joints hurt, I can't see quite as well as I could a few years ago, my back is killing me, etc.

As much as I absolutely hate everything that I've mentioned (who wants broken stuff, or a hurting back?), I do thank God for it. Here's why:

1. It has given me a chance to not feel quite so invincible but rather like a blade of grass of the field (sorry, just can't call myself a flower - God gave me a gender you know). Admittedly, with work it has been a struggle lately to avoid the temptations and lies of success. It's easy to put my worth in the number of patents that I file in my first year of work, or what other people thing of my work. But ultimately, most of those people (most of which don't know Christ - but do know my shnazzy new design) will ultimately forget about me and my ideas - but they need to know Christ, who will not fade away.
2. It makes Jesus stand out as the only perfect and unbreakable person/object/etc that has ever existed. My possessions, flesh, friends, money, etc. will always fail or break...but Jesus stands out so much in the other direction that we can't even put Him on a scale to compare.
3. It forces me to trust God for his provisions in my life. God gave us carbon fiber and God determines when, how, and where it will break. God is sovereign over the representative in charge of determining if they will replace my frame or not. Though ultimately my possessions are not my greatest need.
4. Ultimately, Christ is the only satisfying thing that is or will ever be in my life.

At this point, I really have two options, I can trust my mind and money to buy more insurance and more expensive (hopefully better quality) possessions...or I can hand that aspect of my life over to God. Pray for the latter. And also pray that God would wreck your possessions.

EDIT: I just watched this video after posting, which fit really well with what I just wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dK64SpJ0qg&feature=player_embedded

HT for the video: SK