Defining Things

So today I found out more about Uisdean Ruadh's Father in Law's death. Apparently, the house he and his mother in-law lived in was being foreclosed on. His mother in law had no idea there were any money problems whatsoever. His mother in law now has a triple loss: her husband, her home, and all the network and friends she had in her current situation; in a very real sense, her life.

In a horrible way it does not make sense to me, and yet I can fathom where the despair came from: he was of an older generation where such things were considered a personal disgrace. I have been to the edge of such a mindset, where the pain of suicide seems less than the pain of enduring so I can imagine the emotional turmoil he was probably undergoing, the sense of helplessness and loss and inability to make everything right.

But only to the edge. I cannot see beyond that curve in the road.

But what a terrible reminder to the import we can place on those things which have little value in the light of eternity. What is a house, a car, in fact all our things compared to our relationship with God and with others? Losing things does not diminish me as a person. Indeed, even losing my reputation because of situation and circumstance does not diminish me as a person.

But one cannot hold it inside. That is the point at which problems occur. Even with my own (drastically less serious) circumstances, the temptation is to begin to disconnect with others, especially when there is a sense of futility, or depression. At that point, things become a self echoing chamber, and all the bad thoughts we think become self fulfilling prophecies. And the problem with self-fulfilling prophecies is that the finite self cannot see what the infinite God sees, and so makes poor choices.

In my daily life, am I letting the things and circumstances define who I am in Christ? How I see others in Christ? Or will the inanimate determine the value Christ has said I have?