Nothing But God Lasts:

This last weekend I went to Galena, IL for the Labor Day weekend.  This was a mom and daughter trip.  My mom and I usually go earlier in the summer, but with the wedding and RAGBRAI, we delayed the trip a bit.  It was a busy weekend, where we got to go hiking and running, as well as do our favorite thing  of checking out the shops. One new thing we were able to do was go to a few museums, such as the Dowling House (Oldest House in Galena) and President Ulysses S. Grant house.  I learned a lot about Galena and the town’s history as well as some of the important individual people who lived there.  

One point consistently made in these museums was how big Galena once was to how small it is now.  Not to say Galena isn’t a busy town.  Many people, including my mother and I, travel to it, but it is not a huge town.  There are not many people actually living in town or a part of the population.  The town did a very good job of pivoting and making their town an antique or old school town of sorts, filled with cute local shops, and museums to help grow its attraction after the initial loss of people.  

So how exactly did Galena go from being the biggest city in Illinois at one time to being a small cute shop town? Galena really became big because of the river.  It was a river town, when the river was the main point of transportation. Because they were on the river, many people came to town and helped with its growth and its wealth.  Galena also was a town where many miners found lead. This being the main reason the town was called Galena, which is the name for the mineral form of lead sulfate.  At the time, lead could make a person a lot of money.  

However, many things changed over time.  After years, the lead mineral became less and less in value.  It went from 50 dollars a ton (50 dollars meant a lot of money in the time) to 2 dollars a ton (Still money, but not near as profitable).  There were many people then who went to find jobs and profit in other areas, leaving Galena behind.  Along with that, they had to chop down the trees in order to use their machines to get up the lead.  Because there was a lack of trees now, erosion occurred and the river began to shrink and shrink.  This gave people less reasons to travel to Galena as well as the main form of travel quickly becoming the railroad.  

What I learned from this, is nothing in this world is concrete or is meant to last forever, even the items and things we think are meant to be the most valuable. This town of Galena thought they had it made.  At one time they were the biggest city in Illinois as well as the wealthiest.  Then they were very poor and hardly had anything.  Many of the original houses and businesses were left desolate. We have been taught to believe certain items are the most important, whether this be money or certain name brands, etc.  However, if those are the kind of things we build ourselves on, then we will very easily be able to fall. 

Living in the United States right now, there has been a lot of discussion on money.  I am not saying that there isn’t a good reason.  Our prices are really high right now.  There are a lot of people who are struggling.  There are a lot of people who are living paycheck to paycheck or not even having enough from their paychecks.  I too have been really stressed about money a lot recently.  I have been very distracted by the high prices, the amount of savings I had to dip into for the wedding expenses, and the consistent car issues I have been having, making more and more payments I wasn’t ready to make.  

There is a verse, I myself, as well as many others need to look at for encouragement which is Hebrews 13:5.  This says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” I love this verse because it is a reminder to avoid the love of money and greed.  We need to remember to be content with what we have and not so focused on the things not in our possession.  The Lord will take care of his children.  Not saying we won’t have struggles, but we will have God’s sovereign protection.   

The challenge for this week is to spend time in prayer.  This is to spend time in prayer over the things that we can sometimes depend on more than God.  This could even be money.  I know money is tight for a lot of people, and I don’t want to take that away from anyone.  I know it can be very stressful.  I just want us to remember as God’s people to not depend on money but instead to rather depend on God for everything and all time.