Cleaning the Garage

I can’t prove it but I’m quite certain “stuff” reproduces in dark, cloistered spaces like drawers, closets, and even garages. How else can you explain that sooner or later these spaces all mysteriously overflow their capacity?

Recently my husband and I started cleaning our garage.  We had to.  Our “stuff” was migrating into the middle of the floor making the pathway smaller and smaller. 

Joyce Meyer talks about how junkyards are full of the “stuff” men have spent so much of their time working for; time spent away from family, friends, God. She’s right.  In addition, the more “stuff” we have the more it has us. It claims our energy.  After all, we have to repair it, clean it, organize and reorganize it.  It also claims our hearts.  We love our cars, boats, houses.

Don’t misunderstand. I don’t think it’s wrong or evil to own “stuff.”  But I do think it’s wrong to always want more.  I mean, how much “stuff” can any of us use anyway?  This is what I was thinking when I was cleaning my garage. And the conclusion I’ve drawn from my own personal life is this: I have far too much “stuff” and far too little appreciation for it.

I’m reminded of a lady in our church who went on a mission’s trip to Haiti. She brought two boxes of crayons with her; just plain ordinary crayons, nothing fancy.  They didn’t glow in the dark or sparkle. They weren’t even 3-D. And when she gave the boxes to the Haitian pastor for his church children, the pastor wept, he wept for joy!  And then he praised God over and over again for His goodness.  Imagine!

I’m still trying to get my mind around that. And while I do, my prayer is:

Lord make me more grateful!

Until next week,

Sylvia