It’s that time again, the annual Nordstrom Anniversary sale. The one where women go bonkers and lose their whole minds just to shop at the fancy shmancy department store that houses every fashion loving gals’ dreams. I have to confess, I am very jelly of all the shoppers scooping up all the greatest items before any of us peasant folk can have a go at it. If you don’t know how this gig works, I’ll tell ya. If you are not a Nordstrom credit card holder, you no shoppy at this sale until they open it up to the “public” (aka peasants)! Which means, everything that is really popular and loved is all picked over or totally G O N E by the time the losers get to shop. Heartbreaking, huh? Mehhh! Whatevs, I’m over it!
If you search Nordstrom sale on Pinterest….you will find hundreds of pins for shopping strategies to get everything you wish for and for stuff you don’t even need. Bloggers have teams of people working for them just helping them put together posts about every item YOU MUST HAVE and for all the latest deals and even the RESTOCK items. Seriously? Come on. Not only are these chicks posting their best of the best #nsale goodies, they are buying (or are they?) $1000’s of dollars worth of ON SALE ITEMS for their already bulging closets.
Now let me be very clear. NO ONE LOVES CLOTHES SHOES JEWELS PURSES COSMETICS more than moi (ME). I live to look good. I drool over pretty things. I cherish a fabulous outfit that makes me appear to be better than a pack of crackers! I adore shopping and I have even been known to claim that I shop like it’s my dang job (it’s not, I’m a hot housewife…as in, I’m going through the change like a fireball). I would love nothing more than to get paid to buy the latest fashions and to snap pics of my old lady self in the mirror over & over & over again.
I’m that vain. Really.
Still, I have a problem with the whole braggy lifestyle fetish that this whole Nordy sale has turned into. I swear I’m not just talking from a heart of jealousy. I WANT MY OWN NORDSTROM CARD!!! I admit it. I want to shop that dang sale early just like the rest of you fashion hogs. But, I can’t help but recognize more clothes and sizzling hot boots are not what God wants for me. He has something so much better than a bell-sleeved sweater top.
In my morning devotion today, I read about a missionary who was visiting in a very poor village. She asked how she could pray for the woman living in the dirt floor hut. Without hesitation, this woman with no sink, fridge, furniture and more said, “pray that I would be able to teach my children the love of God and to serve Him with their whole lives!”. What? Don’t pray for me to have a better home? Pray for my comforts? Pray for beds for all my children to sleep in and not on the floor? Pray for warm clothes or clean water?
Seriously. NO. She wanted what scripture plainly reminds us repeatedly in the Bible. To love God, not stuff. To serve Him, not our lifestyles. To want what HE wants not what we dream of for ourselves.
Ouch! Conviction.
Philippians 3:8 says, “Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus”. See, you and I have fallen for a very sneaky trick from the enemy. He likes to tell you & me that stuff will make us happy. More clothes will fill up our empty tanks. Having the latest fashions, driving the fanciest car or having the biggest house will fulfill our longings. And… he is dead wrong!
My mother collected things her whole life. Her house was so full of beautiful items, boxes and boxes of clothes, furnishings and even a pantry full of foods. Yet, she didn’t use any of it. She probably wore the same few outfits and only ate a little of the food here & there. She surely wasn’t enjoying the expensive china dishes or any of the stacks of things in her storage rooms. She lived to excess because it made her feel better. When she died she left it all behind. I was stuck sorting out her lifetime of collecting things that no one needed. What value did any of it bring to her? How did it make her love the Lord more? Did she understand Eph. 3:8?
I want to know Christ more than I want that cute pair of booties on sale at Nordstrom. Stuff goes away, goes out of style….breaks or tears up. Jesus is for always, here on earth and on to eternity in heaven. I want to spend my energy and heart on what’s eternal.
Lord,
Forgive me for loving stuff more than I do you sometime. I’m so blessed to live in a country where shopping is as easy as waking up and yet, I’ve missed the mark on what real living is. Help me to point to you with my life and my lifestyle.
Amen
