Space Pirates and House Fires

Pop quiz: Do you know who this guy is?No, not Harrison Ford. That's Han Solo, the space pirate (who had just negotiated a lucrative deal to transport two men to Alderaan, enough to pay off his debt to crimelord Jabba the Hutt, when Greedo showed up to collect the bounty on him). Don't judge me. Like you couldn't have rattled that off.

Anyway, I have one of the original 1977 Kenner Han Solo Star Wars figures. For years he's sat on my bookshelf. And not just because space pirates are super awesome. For me, he's a reminder.

Several years ago Shannon and I had a house fire. You can read the story, but basically lightning struck and ignited the insulation in our attic. We pretty much lost everything in the attic and in a few rooms of the house, including dozens of cd's, my Xbox, and my guitar stuff (acoustic, electric, 12-string, amps, pedals, magazines... ugh. It still pains me to think about.).

I don't know what you have in your attic, but we had boxes and boxes of stuff stored up there. One of those boxes was my Star Wars collection; many of the original figures, space ships, etc. Han Solo was one of the few that survived, slightly charred.

Although we lost a lot of stuff, one of the life lessons that I took from that experience is that "stuff is just stuff." The Xbox, I got a new one. The guitars, I got a new one. Even the stuff that was not replaceable, it was still just stuff. Thankfully, our wedding album and family photos were safe... but even that stuff, it's just stuff.

And stuff fades. Stuff doesn't last.

I heard somebody say one time there are three things that last forever: God, the Word of God, and people's souls. It's nice to have nice stuff, but stuff doesn't have lasting value. I want to continually be investing my life in something of lasting value, something of eternal value. I think that's what Jesus would have wanted (see Mt6).

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