One day last summer I was on my way to lunch when I drove by a house that was having a rummage sale. Even though I did not stop for the sale, I could not help but notice the display closest to the street—what caught my eye was a table filled with old trophies that were now for sale on someone’s driveway.

I had to wonder why anyone would be interested in purchasing a used trophy. What could they possibly do with it? The trophies for sale probably had the name of the recipient engraved on it, along with a brief description of their meritorious actions. Who would want to put someone else’s trophy on their mantle?

Later, I began to wonder why the seller wanted to get rid of their old trophies in the first place. I am sure that at one time those trophies held a lot of value, or at least some emotional attachment. Trophies usually signify some accomplishment—they serve to remind us of some success in our business or personal life. Maybe a bowling trophy loses its luster when one stops bowling. That trophy from a winning high school football season might not seem as important thirty years later when your own children are in college. What we value today might wind up in the trash or on a table at a rummage sale tomorrow.

The truth of the matter is that there is nothing in this life we can carry with us into the next. The trinkets and knick-knacks we treasure here on earth will be of no value in eternity. This being so, it makes one wonder why we spend so much time acquiring earthly possessions, but so little time preparing for the life which is to come.

Suppose you gained all that this world has to offer—what would you really have? A handful of tinsel? Jesus told His disciples: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:24–26).

David Padfield