And Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought TO HIMSELF, ‘What SHALL I DO? I have no place to store MY CROPS.’   “Then he said, ‘This is what I'LL DO. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store MY SURPLUS grain. And I’ll say TO MYSELF, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared FOR YOURSELF?’ (Luke 12:16-20).

It’s a foolish thing to believe a lie.  Especially a lie we tell to ourselves.  Lies like “You’re only as valuable as your ability to perform.”  Or “Your worth is measured by your bank account and standard of living.”  We don’t want to lie to ourselves, we don’t mean to fool ourselves, but …

What made the farmer in Jesus’s story a fool?  He talked to himself – and only to himself.

It can be easy for Christians, especially we who live in the affluent West, to get wrapped around our axles when it comes to money and possessions.  We know, we ought to know, that Scripture repeatedly warns us against the love of money, the tentacles of Mammon, the many ways in which the desire for riches and stuff can turn our lives into thorn-choked wastelands with nothing good growing.

But then we try to fix our anxiety with rules: give exactly 10% of your income to God’s work (not a penny less or more).  Don’t drive a car any fancier than a Toyota Corolla (or whatever – not knocking Corollas!).  Don’t live in a house that has more than X square feet of space per occupant.  If you need to rent a storage space (the modern equivalent of “building bigger barns”?) for some of your stuff, you have too much stuff -- declutter.

Some rules like these are wise and helpful.  Depending on who you talk to.  For example, if our farmer spoke only with his fellow well-off farmers, they no doubt would have celebrated him as A Wise and Prudent Man.

What if he had spoken with some of his less-well-off neighbors?

What made the farmer in Jesus’ parable a fool was not that he worked hard or had barns or planned ahead.  He was a fool because he only talked with himself about himself (see the all caps sections of the passage at the top).  He never included God as the central participant in his conversation about his prosperity.  

A less foolish conversation might have gone something like this:

FARMER: What a harvest!  Record-breaker!  Thanks, God!

GOD:  I’m happy to bless you!  Now, what are we going to do –

FARMER:  We?  Whadda you mean, “we”?

GOD:  Did you make the sun shine and the rains fall on your fields?  Did you create the seeds you planted or the soil that has produced so abundantly or the lumber with which you built your current barns?

FARMER:  I worked hard!  I planned ahead!  I took risks!

GOD: Indeed you did.  Thank you for playing your role in my purpose to bless you and everyone around you.  But you didn’t answer my question.

FARMER:  Uh, no, I didn’t do any of those things you mentioned.  You did.

We can see where this conversation was likely headed, right? 

If only this farmer had been willing to invite God into the conversation, he’d have become far less a fool.

Are there “topics of conversation” with God that you are reluctant or resistant to engage?  Welcome to the human race: we’ve all got them!  Genuine inner strength comes from God, not from how we perform or what we possess.  Is there a “topic” about which God wants to have a conversation with you?  What’s one way you could begin to enter that conversation?