July 09, 2012
Trashing Your Treasures
I am in the process of sorting through my mom’s things and my emotions
run from grief to anger to laughter. Mom was a hoarder, so the magazines and
stacks of papers that were near and dear to her heart are simply heartburn for
me. I really am trashing her treasures. Mom was a believer, who obviously didn’t
struggle with storing treasures on earth vs. storing treasures in heaven. For
her it was not a matter of either or, but rather a matter of being able to do
both. Interestingly Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and yet He never
mentions our being surrounded with any earthly possessions that once brought pleasure
and comfort. “In my Father’s house are
many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to
prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2 NIV)
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Gail;
-----I have an aunt who once was a hoarder. She collected so much stuff that only a narrow path through the house remained. Her and my uncle slept outside in a camper shell he had fixed into a sleeping space. I don’t know what happened to change her thinking, but today all the stuff is gone, and she lives a normal life.
-----I suppose there’s a lot of different reasons a person might be a hoarder. I am somewhat a hoarder myself. I save all the little ends and scraps I cut off boards and plywood and sheet metal and steel tubing or whatever material I’m using. Half the time I’ll save the worn out and broken parts when I fix my vehicles or equipment. But my hoarding is mostly because I like making things and this stuff becomes the material for fashioning odd contraptions later. My wife gets a little bewildered at all the books and magazines I save. But I don't just enjoy information, I try to use it. So often I need them occasionally to refresh my memory or check my facts. When I have discarded things in the past, often I was later wishing I had not when some need for it arose.
-----In my case, I think hoarding is about feeling a sense of value in something that seems to fulfill an unarticulated sense of need, possibly because I know my interests and what I might be doing later. So if I place something on a shelf, I no longer feel a need. If I pitch it, I fret that I will need it. Since I like goofing around with scraps and information, maybe that is rather reasonable. Maybe this interplay of the senses is the same with complete hoarders. There’s always a time when a tin-can or bottle or old newspaper or something becomes useful, so the feeling of needing it may not be that improper.
-----Just the saving of stuff may not be the hoarder’s problem. It might be in his failing to acquire a general sense for the likelihood of something's usefulness and what is a sufficient supply of it. A few cans and bottles and newspapers and rags and stuff can be both enough and useful.
-----It is the mind which should measure the emotions and define their senses. Unbridled passions create messes of what good reason would cause to be normal functions of life. So it is that self-control is fruit of the Spirit.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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