Have you ever noticed how many storage places there are? You see them on roads, off streets, along highways: rows and rows of bins and compartments and sheds. Or "pods." One sign south of Daytona Beach says, "Hoarders Welcome."
And so it is that Westerners are so laden with "things" -- with material, with objects -- that we don't know quite where to put it all.Yet, we are so attached to it that we can't discard it or give it to Goodwill.
Discarding should be avoided unless something is entirely of no use; we should buy only what we need and will use. And use it well. But we should not invest emotion in it. What is ahead is what is important, not the past. When we are bound to a thing we are bound to what the moth eats, what gathers dust. Have joy. The fruit of sentimentality is melancholy. We should have our hearts not in the darkness of an attic or storage unit but in the Glory of God.
You know the adage: there is no U-Haul behind the hearse.
Yet, attached we all are, from time to time, in some cases too much of the time, and to great potential detriment. To some extent, we all hoard. Look at your basement. Look at your closets. How much has been wasted? How much will you never use again? How much do you keep because it possesses a piece of your psyche -- your spirit (dragging you down to the past when you see it)? "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul," was the reading yesterday (5/25/16, 1 Peter 2).
Frankly, when you glance at those hoarding shows on TV -- those poor folks surrounded by mounds of what amounts to trash -- you can sense a spirit involved.
Things are, well: things. We should waste no material nor have things just to have things. What good does buried gold now do for the pirate? In your attic or up on a shelf may be trophies. How very important they seemed at the time. We note how athletes struggle with famous might and skill and determination to get one -- an NBA trophy, or the Stanley Cup, or a Super Bowl ring -- but how brief that glory is, where on the other hand, the glory of Heaven, the "trophies" there, are forever.
We are told by Jesus that where the heart is, so is the treasure. Is your heart on the things of Heaven or those below?
No worms, no rust, eat what is in paradise. How much time have you spent in your life thinking about material objects versus what lasts forever? "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal," says Matthew 6:19, to reiterate.
Treat earth for what it is: a passing place, a place of trial, of challenge, of good tests; but a place of exile. A temporary place. Where your heart goes, your soul will follow. Christ said not to become overly attached to any creatures or things. We must love in a way that is transcendent -- not bound to the world.
Ascend above the over-sentimentality that makes life saturnine and let your soul elevate to the rightful glories -- and indestructible "gold," unending treasures -- of Heaven.
[resources: The Other Side and What You Take To Heaven]