Mine All Mine

Acts 4:32–35

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• The community of believers was of one heart and mind.
• No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own.
• With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
• There was no needy person among them.

Applying the Word to My Life:
I remember when each of my boys first learned the word “mine.” Not just the word itself, but the whole concept. They were just learning to talk and walk, and the idea that something could belong to them was game-changing. Suddenly all their toys were “mine.” The high chair was “mine.” The kitchen table was “mine.” Living room furniture was “mine.” Once they learned it, we heard that word a lot for the next several days.

It was funny, but it also meant we had some work to do. Once they understood that things could belong to them, we knew it was time to lean hard into the idea of sharing. If we didn’t, then Stacey and I would have had to find someplace new to eat and they would have had to learn how to pay a mortgage. Owning something gives us a kind of reassurance, but a home doesn’t work if everyone is clinging to their possessions.

We live in a society that emphasizes the concept of “mine” and that isn’t all bad. I would definitely be a little disturbed if someone took my keys and decided to “share” my car with me. But there is a point where it all breaks down and the things start to own us.

Coming from that place, the Christian community in today’s reading seems almost impossible to imagine, let alone understand. The idea of taking all of the things that are “mine,” the fruit of all my labor, and just giving them away seems unthinkable. But at the same time, I really like the idea of a community of “one heart and mind.” How did they get there, what happened to pull these people together and have them let go of their things?

We have been watching that happen over the past few days. Peter stopped clinging to pride. He stopped clinging to safety. He became free enough to give away Christ’s love instead of clinging to himself. And that matters because love and possession finally move in opposite directions.

Love gives. Possession claims. Love is willing another’s good even when it costs me. Possession asks how I can hold on to what is mine even when that costs others. In the end, I cannot live by both. I have to choose whether my life will be shaped more by self-gift or by possession. When I choose self-gift, I make room for Christ’s love to take root.

Once Christ’s love really takes root, what I have can stop being something to protect for myself and start becoming something that love can use for others. And where Christ’s love is really given and received, it does not stay contained in one person or one dramatic moment. It spreads and takes root.

That is what we are seeing here. The love of Christ first given away through Peter and the apostles has taken root and has borne great fruit. This community did not come together because they all happened to have compatible personalities or because they agreed on a few shared values. It happened because the life of Christ had become more real to them than the instinct to keep circling back around “mine.”

And once that started happening, the possessions and resources in their lives could finally show a higher meaning. Rather than being an anchor to cling to, they became a way of making love concrete. This is not a community that merely felt warmly toward one another. It is a people whose shared life had started to be reshaped all the way down to money, need, and responsibility. “There was no needy person among them.” That is what happens when love stops being sentimental and starts costing something.

I like the idea of a one-hearted community. I like the beauty of it. I like the witness of it. I also really like owning the things I instinctively use for reassurance. My money. My time. My comfort. My plans. The things I quietly circle and label “mine.” In the end, I can’t choose both. One has to rule the other.

This reading does not just ask whether we admire the early Church. It is looking directly at our hearts. It asks whether Christ’s love is taking root in us deeply enough to loosen our grip or if we are gripping things too tightly to let that love take root.

What has God placed in your hands that you are still treating as yours instead of letting love give it away?

My Response for Today:
Today, I will identify one thing I have been treating as “mine” and ask how love can make it a gift.