You Don't Know

There was a statement in my devotional book, "Power for Today," that grabbed my attention. Here is the statement. "You don't really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have." That statement brought back to me the feeling of helplessness that I experienced after my house fire. Before the fire, I was what I called pretty self-sufficient, or so I thought at the time. I had graduated college and had settled into a thirteen-year-long teaching career and was living a portion of my dream and was well on the way to achieving the rest of it.

Had bought a set of fine china one year, bought a triple wide china cabinet one year, a brand new riding lawn mower sat in my garage, brand new bikes for my children were in the driveway and so on and so forth. I was buying these things so that when I bought my house, I would not have to worry about paying for them. They were bought and done. Check that off of the list. Had "my stuff" still in the boxes that most of it came in, waiting on my house. As I said, I was wheeling and dealing! Yesiree, I depended on God and me!

Close to Jesus and Knew It

Prayed quite a bit about each new undertaking, didn't bother folks - minded my own business, made sure that I did the right thing most of the time,  asked forgiveness when I didn't, etc. Y'all know the drill.

So, when I got the news about someone's house being afire, you can imagine my attitude. Since there were two of us that had been called to the office, I knew that the house burning down belonged to the lady who was with me. I just knew that because stuff like that didn't happen to me, it just didn't. So, I turned to her to say the appropriate sympathetic thing.

What Did You Say?

Ha! Before I could get the words out, the office manager said, "No, not your house, pointing to the lady, but yours!  I never will forget, I who was pretty articulate at the time, started stammering. With a total look of disbelief on my face I said, "Muh, muh, my house is burning down?!"

Y'all, I could not believe it. I just could not believe it. But, it was so. You can read the rest of the story about my house fire in the book, "Chopping My Row," pp 18-19.

One More Point

Since there was no insurance, there was no way to replace anything. I found out what it was to have nothing, not even a broom straw. But you know what, folks. I had Jesus, and I found out that He was all I needed to get by. All of the things lost in the fire have been replaced several times over. But, there are no boxes of things waiting to be used, nope never again. Fire insurance? Ha, ha, fire insurance poor these days!

Material things do not mean as much to me now and never will again. Now, don't get me wrong. I like nice things, but I can do without them if I have to. The most important thing I learned from my fire, Things don't make me, Jesus does. That's one thing I do know.