If you had to move, and you could only pack one box, what would be in it? I thought about that recently. I just moved from Quitman, LA to New Roads, LA. I am now the new pastor at First Baptist Church in New Roads. I am excited to be here, but I am not a fan of moving. I have lots of stuff. There are boxes of clothes, boxes of books, and to be honest, boxes of junk. I realized I am blessed. I also realized I could do without most of what I have. Then a thought came to mind, “What if I had to move all my stuff using one box. What if I had to narrow down all my stuff to one little box, what would I put in it?” I thought of 4 things:
1. My Bible – my relationship to God is of great importance
2. Pictures of My Family – my relationship with my family is important as well
3. Running Related items – my shoes, watch, and I-pod, because I love to run
4. Coffee Related items – a coffee pot, a cup, and coffee, because I love my coffee
I would probably put a few other things in the box. But, the four stand out to me. If you had to narrow your stuff down to four things, what would it be? By the way, when we die, we will be put in – a box. Just a thought!
Just a Thought 
I enjoyed reading this. As I ponder on your question, I remember going through two similar situations. The first being Hurricane Katrina…our community served as the place people came to know as “home” for many months. For some, August through February. During this time, we had a Red Cross Distribution Center. Our gym did not and probably will never look the same. It held aisles and aisles of clothes any size, diapers, baby formula, bathroom supplies, toothbrushes, medicine, you name it, it was
there including bibles.
As we helped each person who came through our doors, we provided the tangible items, tried to offer emotional support and feed them spiritually by offering a bible. This was close to the beginning of my spiritual walk. I was only about 10 years saved at that time. What hit me the hardest was this one gentleman…I asked him if he needed a bible. He was so precious! His response was this-“No ma’am, I grabbed three things when we left home, a set of clothes, my toothbrush, and my bible”. What a statement! He didn’t know how long he would be gone from home. He could have loaded pictures, food, an extra pair of shoes, and many other things we all could probably list. But, he made sure he had his bible. I’ve never forgotten that man!
The second thing that comes to my mind is last summer…the Mississippi River in South Louisiana was extremely high. It forced the Morganza Spillway floodgates to decide after about 23 years, I think, whether it would open or not. The levees in Pointe Coupee parish were at risk of breaching. We live about two blocks from the levee. We would go check to see how high the water was getting. At one point it appeared to me that it was about 2 feet from the top. We began to prepare our home for the emergency. I put things in our attic, put family photo albums in the highest place possible and tried to get that I could scanned and put on a flash drive. But, you ask what would I put in my one box? My main thought during this whole time was that elderly gentleman and I already had my bible in my van in case of an emergency. I knew I would need clothes and a toothbrush, but I wanted to Honor God first and foremost because of how much impact that man’s answer to my question, “Do you need a bible?”, over 5 years ago. It really made me stop and think long and hard about many things that I cherished.