Years ago, Patty and I bought a 1969 Airstream. I was over the moon. A friend of mine helped me work on it—new carpet, new plumbing, the whole thing. And at some point, he dropped this line on me: "Remember, you don't own this camper. The camper owns you."
I laughed. Then I thought about it for a few days. Then I realized he was right.
That Airstream was a blessing. We took it to Yellowstone and Glacier with our little kids. But it also needed to be maintained, winterized, protected, worried about. And eventually a storm rolled through, dropped a tree on it, and that was that. We sold it “as is.”
Here's what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 6: God can give someone wealth and possessions and honor, but if they can't enjoy them, it's hevel. Smoke. A grievous evil.
The problem isn't the blessing. The problem is the grip.
When we clutch our stuff, our health, our job, our plans—when any of it becomes the thing we can't lose—it stops blessing us and starts owning us. Holding things loosely isn't the same as not caring. It's trusting that the One who gave the gift is better than the gift itself.
So today, name a few of your blessings out loud. Thank God for each one. And then pray this: Lord, these are Yours. I'm holding them with open hands.
You'll be surprised how much lighter you feel.
181 | If Everything Is Smoke, What's Worth Chasing?
In this message from the Ecclesiastes series, Pastor Paul Durbin walks us through chapters five and six, where Solomon keeps circling back to the Hebrew word hevel—smoke, vapor, something you can see but can't grab. If everything in life slips through our fingers, what's actually worth pursuing? Paul points to the counsel of three older, wiser men—his own 85-year-old dad, missionary C.T. Studd, and Solomon himself—who all land in the same place: live your life to the glory of God with Jesus at the center. From there, Paul unpacks five heart postures from these chapters that help us do exactly that.
