This summer, Debbie has been cleaning out our basement. It's amazing how much "stuff" you can collect over the years. Decisions are to be made on almost everything. Do we keep it or throw it away?
For most of us it's hard to let go. It's hard to turn loose of things, events, and people. Whether is be allowing a child space to grow up or letting a friend have the freedom to be themselves or throwing out "stuff" from the basement, it's hard, it's difficult to give up things that we think we cherish.
We are clutchers by nature, aren't we friends. We hold on the position and power and people as if everything is dependent upon us. When that control is threatened, we cringe, we balk, we pout, we point a finger at those around us and at God.
That's why I am learning to hold things loosely. Everything belongs to God. Everything must be committed to God.
Abraham's story in Genesis 22 shows this.
It's an amazing story as he takes his son - his son that he loved, his son in whom he took great delight - and the Bible says in Genesis 22:2 that God said to him, "take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go the land of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering."
Wow......It was time to turn him loose. What was Abe's response? He didn't plead or bargain or try to manipulate. He surrendered his son to God.
Here's a statement - true or false: the greater the possessiveness, the greater the pain.
What does God want us to do? Hold everything loosely. That doesn't mean that we don't care. It doesn't mean we don't grieve. But it means that we know that ultimately, everything is God's.
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My rule of thumb for throwing stuff away is if I haven't used it in the last 2 years (some things had been in boxes for 10 years) I probably won't be needing it anytime soon.
As I went through pile after pile of "junk" things brought back so many memories - of when the children were young, of when I was young or reminders of certain happy times. But I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't the "things" that were important, but the memories they produced.
I want to be a person who clutches tighter to Jesus than to "things". Because everything in my life is a reminder of what He has done for me.
A phrase I use a lot (that drives my Depression-era raised mother crazy) is, "It's just stuff." And, really, that's all it is. I can't take it with me and it does me no good when I'm gone. The Word says that my rewards are in heaven, my figurative crown and jewels and mansion on the hill. I'll never have anything close to that here and wouldn't know what to do with it if I did. God has provided all I have and, if I lose it, He will provide all I need for the future. Most of all, He has provided people in my life...good, godly people...who help me to realize how I need to improve in my walk with Him.
That's what is hard to let go of...the people in my life. I've had to let go of some "toxic" relationships lately, just mentally shove them away, though I know that I should be showing them the way to Christ. Letting go of brothers and sisters in Christ, who go on to their heavenly reward, is really not that hard for me...I know where they will spend eternity and I know that I will see them again in a better place and time. (Will time even matter? Sorry, just a stray thought.) It's letting go of those whom I don't know if they have that important relationship with Christ or those that I know do not that haunt me. But I know that the Word says that some will harden their hearts and there is nothing I can do against that. So, I trust in God to work His good in these folks as I let them go...I keep them in my prayers for the Holy Spirit to keep working on them and eventually bring them to the Cross.
Stuff is just stuff. People are important. But what's most important is my relationship with Jesus Christ. I pray that I always cling tighter and tighter to Him, no matter what storms rage in my life. God is good...all the time.
Love God. Love People.
Jon
There is no question we (my family) live in excess. So often I’m ready to throw everything out because I hate dusting and wonder why I have so much “stuff.” I told Rick a few months ago (spring cleaning time that I never got to) that I’m tired of living in excess and I want to throw things away. And, then he asks me, “why do you have winter dishes and spring/summer dishes? He got me! He is so right on one hand I do what is in Romans 7:15 (For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.) I’m not saying it’s sin for me, but still, I know I have more stuff than I need and yet I keep buying more. And then this week we have been challenged to know we could leave it all behind and things truly mean nothing. The only stuff I want to take with me is to know the Lord is ordering our steps and that my children are doing the same.
So what is the struggle if change is really good and we are willing to accept it? I’m ready for change, change in areas of my life that I have not been willing to accept or desire in 20 years. Now that I am, is it what God wants? We only want to take on or do truly what God desires in our lives and know there is nothing in this world that is holding us back from all that God desires us to do and be. Some things just aren’t as clear as others, and yet when we are challenged to take on more challenges and change, I know all that matters is resting in God and God alone. He has shown us this week that change is not always the answer for everything, but the willingness to change when and if God directs.
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