While growing up on my father’s Mississippi Delta farm, I marveled at Jaybird’s ability to remain at peace with the world around him, even during difficult times. Because the old black man was my best friend and mentor, I wanted to be like him, but unlike him, I was often encumbered with worry and stress. Noticing this, the master teacher helped me overcome this weakness by explaining that much of my preoccupation resulted from wanting the “wants”:
“My son, I’ve noticed that people who clutter their lives with material possessions, instead of making their way through life with just enough to meet their needs, think they can buy pleasure and happiness, but end up dissatisfied, and invariably are fooled into believing that more getting and spending will cure their discontent. This vicious cycle worsens, increasing their unhappiness.
“Because most material things have little or no real value, I limit myself as much as possible. God brought us into this world innocent and happy — without money, without possessions. I want to leave it that way. In this short mortal journey, sorrow counterbalances happiness, which is the Lord’s way of assuring that His children are thankful for the moments of happiness they experience. Without sad times, happy ones aren’t enjoyable. Day in and day out, always the same, life would be boring.
“Fortunately, people who live according to God’s will endure sadness because, by doing so, they develop the ability to turn away from one of Satan’s most effective and destructive tools — one that ultimately leads to sadness: the desire for material things. By not letting them become life’s dominant goal, people build the strength and moral character needed to serve God even better.
“In the end, we must focus on the item whose value isn’t measured by money, the value of which never diminishes: the soul. It needs no property, not even the human body in which it resides, and it is the only possession that must be safeguarded and improved because it is the only possession that God cares about, which holds true for Satan, too.
“Observe materialistic people. Their insatiable thirst for possessions gains only fleeting happiness and pleasure. Instead, they accumulate phantoms that haunt them later. Another motive is their foolish effort to display an image of someone other than their genuine selves, which violates one of life’s cardinal rules: Be yourself. Striving to be otherwise is unattainable and always leads to misery.
“Does all you have said so far mean people seeking happiness must live in poverty?” I asked.
Chuckling, he answered, “Absolutely not! Earning a decent living is the only right way to rise above poverty, but at the same time people must not devote all their energies to making money just so they can buy things. Limiting one’s needs corresponds with the Bible’s teaching: ‘Lay not up treasures upon earth, where thieves break through and steal. Lay up treasures in heaven.’
“To make sure your heart is there also, avoid Satan’s trap: Wanting the ‘wants.’”
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
