The Million Dollar Matress

Last week I heard an interesting story. It seems that on last Tuesday a lady in Hiriya, Israel, had a bright idea and went out and bought her mother a new mattress. Her mother had been using the same mattress for many years and this thoughtful daughter felt it would be a good thing to replace the old, lumpy mattress with a brand new one. Apparently her mother wasn't there when she made the substitution, removing the old and replacing it with the new. After accomplishing her good deed for the day, she grabbed the old, lumpy, mattress and drug it out to curbside for garbage pickup.

This is where the story gets interesting. At some point in the day she realized that she had made a dreadful mistake. In all likelihood, her mother finally came home and recognized immediately what had been done. You see, that lumpy old mattress was stuffed with a million dollars in cash! It seems that the mother didn't trust banks and figured that her mattress was the safest place to hide her life savings. For years she tucked away the excess of her earnings amassing a sum that is considered to be a fortune in any country. But then along came the daughter and started tossing out the things she didn't understand. It made no sense to her to keep that dusty old mattress around.

Once she realized what she had lost she ran frantically to the curb to get it back, only it was gone! The trash collectors had already run and the mattress, presumably, was on its way to the landfill. She quickly notified the landfill that she had lost a mattress with the whopping sum of a million dollars stuffed inside it. What followed would have been comical if it wasn't for the seriousness of the loss. The spent days, with heavy machinery, scouring the landfill in Hiriya, to no avail. The mattress was lost and isn't likely to be found again. The family has now surmised that its possible that some homeless person saw the old mattress on the side of the road and took it for their own. It's entirely possible that tonight, in the city of Hiriya, a poor destitute homeless person is sleeping on a million dollars.

The thing that strikes me about this incident today is the fact that the young lady so casually discarded such a valuable thing simply because she didn't understand the importance of the thing. That old mattress had been there for years, its significance was shrouded by the fact that it was outdated, used up, tired and worn out. So she discarded it. She didn't bother to ask her Mother if there was a reason for keeping it around. She didn't bother to try to discover the significance of it. She just assumed that her limited knowledge of the matter was enough and she tossed the old mattress, along with its fortune, out to the curb.

I am concerned today because, there seems to exist, in my generation, a contempt for landmarks and foundations that have been previously established. The mantra of the revisionists hinges on the idea that anything that is not explicitly stated in scripture is up for grabs. I am sorely afraid that, in the rush to relevance, the essence of who and what we are as a movement will be sacrificed by some on the alter of convenience. I am not one to run around and scream that the sky is falling, however, the more I hear voices among us that question what have long been established positions of the church, the more troubled my spirit becomes. I don't intend any disrespect by comparing our standards and heritage to an old mattress, however, I'm afraid that, in keeping with the story above, some are determined to throw the old mattress out to the curb without ever truly grasping the significance of it.

The stances, standards, and positions we have inherited are not perfect but they have come at a great cost and have been preserved by great sacrifice. It is my desire that a voice of caution would be heard, loud and long, before we tear down in a few moments what was built over the span of generations, before we toss to the curb the riches of a heritage that some of us don't understand. I truly believe that when Esau sold his birthright he thought he was doing what was most expedient for the moment and most beneficial to him. I don't believe he realized the true value of what he lost in that exchange until years down the road. However, the writer of Hebrews tells us that "afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." (Hebrews 12:17 ESV)

I am afraid that it is possible to barter away something precious today, the value of which will only be realized somewhere on down the road, after it is much too late to repent and turn back. I'm afraid that somewhere along the way, some in my generation are going to begin the frantic search for an old mattress that has been permanently lost to them. The poor lady in Israel employed every resource available but never found the mattress. Esau sought it with tears, but couldn't reclaim what he had lost. I, for one, don't want to walk down that desolate road of regret. I further don't want to see my generation relegated to that path.

I have, long since, determined that I will not casually set aside those things that have defined us for years simply because it may seem to be the expedient or convenient thing to do. Somehow, today, I doubt that the nice, new, firm mattress sleeps half as well as the old worn out lumpy one did. As for me and my house, we're gonna keep the mattress...