I just got back from buying a wedding gift at Target. It was supposed to be a quick trip. I figured it would take about 15 minutes to go in, print off the gift registry list, choose something off it, buy it, and get out. But 45 minutes after I went in, I was still wandering from aisle to aisle, unable to find the perfect gift. 

I think there are a couple reasons my Target trip took me so much longer than it should have. The first one was my own fault. I was looking for the perfect gift—the one to which every other gift would pale in comparison; the one that the couple getting married would be talking about for years to come. But when you’re limited to what they really need—a crock-pot, bath rugs, a trash can, for example—it’s hard to find something that’s really going to stand out. (Plus, it probably would’ve helped if I didn’t wait until the day before the wedding to go shopping.)

The other reason it took me so long is that Target just has so much stuff. Who knew there were two brands of triple-bin laundry baskets? Four different finishes for Store-It shelving systems? Two aisles full of rugs? There were so many things to choose from, I could never tell if the item on the shelf matched the item on my list.

As I hiked from one side of the store to the other and back again, through aisles and aisles of stuff, I couldn’t help but think about the first few chapters of Isaiah I was reading yesterday and today. When Isaiah wrote this, things were looking pretty bleak in Judah and Jerusalem. The nations had just gone through a period of great prosperity, but their wealth had become too much and they had resorted to idolatry, immorality, and political corruption. As Isaiah writes in 2:7-9, “Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.”

When I read that, I had to ask myself what the idols are in my life. What “stuff” is getting in the way of my relationship with the Lord? What is God asking me to give up that I can’t quite let go of? Later on in Isaiah, God calls Isaiah to ministry—asking him to encourage the people to turn toward God and away from their sin. Isaiah’s response to God’s call: “Here am I. Send me!”

I read somewhere that Isaiah was probably in his early twenties when he accepted God’s call. If God called me today to give up all the “stuff” in my life—my possessions, my comfort, my plans for the future—like he did with Isaiah, would my response be “Here am I. Send me!”? Or would it be something more like, “Not right now. I’m pretty comfortable where I am. And, besides, I haven’t found that perfect wedding gift yet."