I'm stingy sometimes. I like my own things and because I like my things, I rarely throw things away. It was only just recently that I got rid of my 8-track tapes even though I haven't had an 8-track player for years. (and when I looked on e-bay, I decided the music I'd be listening to just wasn't worth the cost!) Why is it that we like our stuff so much we want to hang on to it so firmly?
We do the same with cars, houses, and insigificant stuff. We do the same with money!
I'm guilty. I like using the money I get for my own things. I guess I just like things. (and I know I am not alone. This is a societal sickness and why places like Shopshewana survive. It's an illness that's related to "knick-knack nausea". We just want more and acquire more stuff!) I was reminded of this the other day when I entered the hidden domain under the stairs in our house. There are stacks of rubbermaid boxes filled with children's books, toys, knick-knacks from several redecoratings ago, and the most "valuable" kids keepables.
Maybe you don't have these, but they are boxes that are marked with the name of each of our children and inside are their first shoes, Christening dresses, blankets made especially for them when they were born, most loved toys, clothes, and the list could go on. We re-discovered boxes literally filled with beanie babies, Elmos, Mickey Mice and china dolls. All of this happened on Friday afternoon just after we cleaned the family room.
The biggest question is, "why?" Why have all of this stuff? While it is true that we don't have nearly as much under the stairs as my parents do in their basement, we still have too much. We hang on too long to what we don't need. And we are not nearly as generous as we ought to be.
"Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,
He throws caution to the winds,
giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.
This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God."(2 Cor 9:6-10 , The Message)
Giving can be such a freeing activity. It will reveal to us the very generous nature of God that we cannot see until we too are generous. Paul challenged the Church at Corinth to pray about their gifts, about their generosity and give in order to experience the extravagance of God.
I need to do the same!
Anybody want any stuff?
Peace ><>
pc
2 comments:
I thought I turned the corner a few years ago and was getting rid of stuff, lightening the load so to speak, but it seems that the faster I dispose of stuff, the more I seem to accumulate. Time to bail faster.
Debt is the same way as material stuff. Just a little charge card here and there and before you know it you have"financial stuff", unpaid obligations from collecting material things.
It takes a lot of energy to keep up with all of this "stuff"
God intended for us to have what we need, and that goes for financial debt too, we need to live within our means and not borrow from the future so to speak.
Here are some links that I believe will be interested
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