Stuff

Jesus didn't tell us, "Go therefore into all the world and collect a bunch of stuff."
(Skit for three: Patty, Chris, Narrator.)

TOPICS:

Happiness, Materialism, Quiet Time, Relationships, Treasures

MATERIALS:

Backpack - filled with soft unbreakable items
Skit handout [PDF] Click here

DURATION:

Approximately 10 minutes

hike

Grace	Phew! (panting hard) This sure is a long hike. How much farther do we have to go?

Alison	Are you kidding? (Laughs) We just got into the woods five minutes ago. I thought you liked hiking.

Grace	I do. (groan) I do like hiking. (Another groan) I'm just ... just ... tired of carrying this pack.

Alison	Goodness! What do you have in that thing, anyway? Hey, there's a shady spot under that tree. Let's have a look.

Alison & Grace	(Both sit down and open pack)

Alison	Grace! You packed half the world in here.

Grace	What? (Confused) Did I take too much stuff?

Alison	(Laughing hard) You packed three combs, five pairs of socks, I don't know how many sets of batteries, your best shoes, one of your brother's shirts, CDs, headphones ... is there anything from your room you didn't bring?

Grace	Oh yeah! I left a whole bunch of stuff.

Alison	Good. Well it's time we left a few more things. (Starts dumping things out)

Grace	(Shouting) Hey! What are you doing? (Grabs pack)

Alison	We're only camping for one night, Grace. And it's already starting to get dark. You don't need all this junk! (Takes pack away from Grace and dumps it out)

Grace	(Still shouting) Junk? It's not junk. These are my prized possessions. They're my life!

Alison	(To audience) Pretty sad life.

Grace	Why, these things are the most important ... (Turns to Alison) Hey, Allison, what did you say?

Alison	Um, never mind. What I meant is, we came out here to get away from all this stuff. (Starts putting things back in pack) If we wanted to play music and dress up in fancy clothes, we should have just stayed home. I thought we wanted to simply have a good time with each other.

Grace	(Sits and thinks) You know what? (Jumps to her feet) You're right. (Picks up pack and zips it closed) You're absolutely right! (Throws pack to the side) We don't need any of that stuff. (Turns to Allison) And without that big heavy old thing, I could run for miles! Let's go!

Alison	Awesome. Let's go!

(Narrator comes and takes center stage, and both girls stand along side the narrator)

Narrator	Stuff. We all sure have a lot of stuff, don't we? The problem is, Jesus didn't tell us to collect stuff. "Go therefore into all the world and collect as much stuff as you can." I don't think so. That verse actually reads ... well let's look it up. Mark 16:15. He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." A little different than "Get a bunch of stuff," eh?

Grace	The thing with stuff is it weighs us down. Like trying to hike with a bunch of things you don't need.

Narrator	We're the same way. We can spend our lives trying to get the latest video game or talking Mom into buying just one more snack. As soon as we have it, though, we want something else. There is no end to our greed.

Allison	Now, having stuff isn't bad. If we have a lot of toys, we can share them with our friends and have a lot of fun playing with them. But like Grace discovered, it isn't things that make us happy. It's people. And the person that will give you the most joy, no matter what, is Jesus.

Narrator	We must be cautious that our stuff doesn't get in the way of our relationship with the Lord. Don't be so concerned about all the things we have that we forget to spend time with Jesus. I discovered that this summer when I reorganized a bunch of stuff I had stored all over the house. It was just that ... stuff! I didn't use half of it, and I didn't need any of it. It just got in the way. I could have used that time more wisely by spending it reading the Bible or praying. Now my quiet time with the Lord is much better. I have learned my lesson. I pray you will, too.