My maternal grandma was a collector of plastic bags. My paternal grandma has a pantry with enough canned goods in it to feed her and her neighbors well into the next decade. My husband's grandma kept styrofoam food containers. One of my aunts keeps dryer lint for fire starters. We have a propensity for keeping things. That just in case mentality leaves many of us holding onto things our children will gladly toss at our passing.
Why do I hold onto junk? My family has never played an organized sport for any significant length of time, yet we own a football, soccer ball, baseball bats and a frisbee, just in case. We have movies unopened because we might someday watch them. I can look around my workspace and see books unread, packages of notecards unsent and various decorations that only get looked at when I dust them.
It could be argued that I hold onto my junk as a way to feel accomplished. Or to assure myself that I am ok financially. Maybe I have been hurt by people and the accumulation of things feels like a better and safer use of my resources. Because things can't hurt you the way people can. I hold onto things that have sentimental and emotional value. There are things I hold onto to remind myself I can learn new things. Other collections remind me of who I was before I had kids, and who I can be when I'm knocking around an empty nest.
In the end none of this matters. Why do I fill up my soul with what doesn't matter? Psalm 104 verses fourteen and fifteen says, that God grows the grass for cattle. He gives us plants to grow for sustenance. God gives us wine for rejoicing, oil to make our faces shine and bread to sustain us. Our God is so generous with us. He leaves nothing to chance when it comes to taking care of us. There is nothing in the world that can fulfill every desire I have like the way Jesus does.
I don't need reminders of who I was or what I might become. Every well-intentioned thing I have kept, every future accumulation should be held against the light of my generous Creator. If I can't use it for His kingdom, why am I keeping it?
Why are you?
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