“Anyone of you who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Renouncing our possessions has everything to do with renouncing that which possesses us!

We spend billions of dollars a year on our obsession with our outward appearance: make-up, clothes, hair, and an assortment of products to alter our bodies in some fashion. We in the West suffer from a new disease that apparently attacks only the affluent nations: obesity. No, not the kind that can be attributed to one's genetic make up but the kind that comes from our insatiable and gluttonous appetite for food.

We spend beyond our means for a house with twice as many bedrooms as there are people living there, a car that takes twice as much room in the store parking lot, or a wedding that is twice the size of our budget! Why? Because we are obsessed with our “status” in society. We need others to be impressed with us.

So, Jesus comes along and says: You need to let it all go! You will never be my disciple until you do. As long as we are obsessed with ourselves and define our self-worth by what we have, our possessions will have an unhealthy claim on our lives. We will call ourselves owners but in fact our possessions will own us. The secret about Christianity is that when you make Christ your obsession, you won’t feel owned at all. No! You will finally be free.