Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
The law of stuff according to Norm Sawyer. “Stuff begets stuff.”
One of the fastest growing businesses in North America is the storage business. People rent space to store all the stuff they have spent a lifetime collecting. They pay money to go visit their stuff and wonder what to do with it all because so much of it is now worthless. A day comes when they try and give the stuff away that so much money was squandered on, but no one wants it because they have too much unnecessary stuff of their own.
Our lives are cluttered with stuff we no longer use and in a lot of cases never needed. The landfills are a testament to the final step when a major purging and cleaning was acted upon and the stuff was thrown away. Eccl. 1:3 You spend your life working, laboring, and what do you have to show for it?
How did we get to a place where we ended up with so much stuff? What is missing in our hearts that we think we need it all? Heb. 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I realize we live in a commercially driven society where stuff is offered to us twenty-four-seven, but why are we falling for so many of the offers?
I was talking with an elderly man who was struggling with events that had happened to him when he was a child. These events had formed and shaped his life in a way that crippled his spiritual maturity because he gave these memories such prominence in his soul. The hurts were piled one upon another. He had become a storage unit for stuff that hindered and stymied his growth, peace, and ability to cope wisely in life. His soul was cluttered with old wounds and scars that he had no more room for, but stuff begets stuff and hurts kept coming his way and he kept storing them.
Why are some people hoarders when it comes to every slight injustice or hurt they have experienced in life? These human storage units of personal injuries can tell you the time and date a particular wrong was done to them. These wounds have become collectibles placed on the table of their hearts for everyone to see and pay with the currency of sympathy and platitudes of “Oh, you poor martyr.” Jer. 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?
These soul infected hurts become a mummy’s grave clothes, binding and wrapping the person’s ability to live in the freedom they could have if they would just let the Lord heal their past and present. Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. Somewhere along the line of life, we have to stop the madness and just honestly desire healing and be willing to pay the price said in Proverbs 4:7b Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.
Get the wisdom and understanding needed to let go of the stuff from the past and reach for a healed future where there is no more room for all the old stuff. Firefighters, soldiers, and cross country backpackers all give witness to the fact that when they have carried their heavy loads and garments throughout the day of hard work, they are so amazed at the lightweight they feel when they take all the stuff off to rest. The lightness that is felt is freeing to their body and mind. They can rest until strength returns. Psalm 116:7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
What hurts are so worth keeping that you are paying a heavy price to revisit and wallow within them till you cannot function? Old stuff is just that – stuff! Today is a new day and there are new blessings available to us that lead to other blessings. If we are going to collect stuff, then let it be the blessings that come from God who loves, heals, and strengthens us to live a life of blessed victory in Christ our Lord. Now that is worth having, because it is eternally freeing. Amen!
Strange…we do garage sales or we give away the stuff of our lives that we accumulate! Why don't we do the same with the stuff accumulated in our souls? Jesus already bought this stuff! We only have to surrender it all and He is ready to cleanse the mess of our lives. It is way less time-consuming than trying to visit, re-visit and shuffle around the stuff all the time!
Thanks for the reminder Norm :)
I didnt want to give up my truck, but last week I did and it feels great because IIhave less stuff to worry about, spendstime on and spend money on. :-)