Reflections on Property
It was around 40 years ago or so that my mother, sister, and I drove up to our families lake cabin at Lake Blackshear on a Friday afternoon to find the door standing wide open.
We wondered aloud if maybe we had not locked the place the last time we were there and we went inside. Nothing was missing but then we looked down towards the lake and noticed the door was open to a storage building near the water.
When we went inside the storage building we discovered my Kawasaki mini-motorcycle was stolen along with the outboard motor for a small fishing boat we owned and all of our fishing rods had been taken.
The sheriff of Worth County himself came to our place told us that there was little hope of recovering our stuff. He did give me a piece of candy. Even at 10 years of age I knew that a piece of candy did not replace my mini-motorcycle.
Thirty years later my wife and daughter entered our home in Henry County after church one Sunday to discover our home ransacked. A window had been broken out of our back door to provide entry. Our televisions, computer, various other electronic items, and much of my wife’s jewelry were missing.
Ironically a number of parishioners noticed a strange car sitting under our carport as they drove to church that Sunday only to assume that we had guests from out of town and that the car belonged to them.
The Henry County Police came and told us there was little hope of recovering our things. The insurance company was not the easiest folks with which I had ever dealt but in the end they did provide a nice settlement. The experience left me quite angry.
In fact, a few months later when I was called for jury duty I was questioned about the incident by the attorneys involved in a case for which I was considered. I was asked, “Were you satisfied with the performance of the Henry County Police Department in this matter?” to which I replied, “No, they never caught the folks that did it.”
My response drew quite a laugh from everyone in the courtroom even from a Henry County policeman who was sitting there. In the end, I was not selected to serve on a jury. I was struck from the jury pool by the defense attorneys who probably assumed that I was going to make sure somebody went to jail for breaking into my house even though the case before us was totally unrelated to our home being burglarized.
I have often wondered why there are some in our society who believe that they have a right to the possessions of others. The Bible has a great deal to say about property and property rights. On the one hand the Bible teaches that all we have is a gift of God. Further, the Bible very definitely teaches that happiness is not found in our possessions and of course the Bible teaches us to be generous in sharing the goods that we possess.
Yet, the Bible also affirms private property and our right to keep the possessions we have. In fact, two of the Ten Commandments do this. One in a very straightforward way says, “Do not steal,” while the other says, “Do not covet,” meaning one is not to desire the possessions of others.
Sadly, there are those in our society who do not follow these commandments. There are those who willfully take the property of others such as those who burglarized our lake cabin and our home in Henry County. Those folks are brazen and they simply take what others have. They do not respect the rights of others.
Then there are those who proclaim messages of envy. Sadly, in our society there are many who do not honor hard work, achievement, competence and business acumen. There are even those who seek power by deriding the accomplishments of others.
The truth is the Bible teaches that we are to be industrious hard working folks and that we are to be productive in our endeavors. There are many who call for folks to “share their wealth” without realizing that wealth must first be created.
We are for the most part not selfish people. Indeed we are a generous people. We are people willing to share and to help those in need. The founder of my denomination, John Wesley, had three simple rules for the people called Methodists when it came to possessions. He taught, “Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Never did he say “Take all you can.”
That’s pretty good advice for all of us, Methodists and non-Methodists.