By Lee and Beth Speed
It’s been a season of yard sales. What is incredible about that is we’ve had 4 and donated to another one. How on earth did we accumulate so much stuff? The mind-boggling thing is that we just moved here about 7 years ago and we had a huge yard sale before we left Pennsylvania and felt like we had de-cluttered. With each yard sale, I find more “stuff.” When we had the first one, it was like scrapping off the surface that everyone could see, but I had gotten used to living with. Felt good. Then the next one, a few decisions to make about what to keep and what to get rid of, but nothing major. Again, a freeing feeling. Then the third. Time to dig a little deeper. Take a minute to think about the value of the item. Who gave it to us? When did they give it to us? Was that moment significant? What does it mean to my children? Does it evoke an emotion? Again, a pretty good feeling once the stuff left. I don’t miss it. I don’t even know what we got rid of.
But this last yard sale? It had a different meaning. This time I had to consider comparative value. An item might have significance, but compared to being able to love an orphan? If the sale of my pampered chef dish might mean we could buy a part of one of Brooke’s homeschool books without having to use support money, wasn’t that more valuable? I won’t be taking it with me. We have one mission for the next year – abandon all we’ve known and follow Jesus. There is no earthly “thing” I can take to prepare me for that. And when I get back, don’t we want to be forever changed? Or do I want to jump right back into the stuff that dragged me down before?
We have some other clutter to get rid of (you all knew I was headed here right?). Both Lee and I feel like God is telling us to “empty” ourselves. Get rid of the extra stuff we’ve gotten so used to in our hearts and minds. We don’t even realize it’s crowding out a full focus on God. We easily forget that when it’s gone there is freedom. God never asks us to get rid of something that is necessary, only the stuff cluttering up the path to the life He planned for us. And if we truly believe He is always good and His plans are better than we ask or imagine why do we hang onto this extra stuff in the first place?
So, as we declutter both physically and spiritually, please pray for us. A lot has been thrown at us in the past month. Our focus needs to be razor sharp – not on what we need to do in the next 45 days or even where we are going, but on Jesus. It’s all about Him – everything else is just yard sale stuff.