Have you ever wanted to scream in frustration as you attempt to maneuver through a room in your house because of all the stuff? What if instead of a room it was really your storage shed, your garage, your basement, or you might even have a storage unit. I can make up all kinds of reasons why “my room” looks the way it does: I don’t have time to keep it clean as well as do everything else, I want to sell a lot of what’s in that room but no one seems to want to buy it, I don’t know where to put something but I still want to keep it, etc… In some areas of my life, I have an unwritten mental rule following a basic principle of one in one out. For example, if I get a new shirt then I get rid of one shirt. If enforced, this principle would probably work well to keep down the clutter.
In thinking about stewardship, in thinking about not wanting to build bigger barns, in thinking about the peace and serenity I’d like to have in my life that comes from tidiness and anti-clutter, why is my heart burdened by the thought of trimming down the amount of stuff piled up in “my room” that is causing me to go nuts? Not all mental/emotional problems warrant seeing a therapist (which I do recommend if you have that kind of need) however, when I looked around “my room” and thought “I wish my house would burn down saving my husband and my cat” then I realized truly how bad the situation had gotten.
Jesus has warned us against tearing down what we have and building something bigger to hold all our stuff (Luke 12:16-21). I grew up in a house that has both an attic and a basement that are the same length as the main part of the house. I’ve also lived in an apartment. In both cases, all available areas, whether large or small, were filled with stuff! I once went “shopping” in my own attic because I had forgotten all the clothes I had put up there! Why do many of us let our possessions get to this point? Materialism and consumerism are topics we will discuss in this quarter’s Sabbath School lesson. Perhaps we will also cover such things as emotional attachment. I end up keeping some things because my friend gave them to me before she died or her husband gave them to me after she died. I keep some things because my husband, mother, father, or whoever gave them to me. Maybe we are afraid someone will ask “where is that thing I bought you” after you get rid of it? It is a hard road in our society to break away from having an overabundance of stuff. It takes such Biblical principles as self-discipline, self-denial, and self-sacrifice, and a desire to put God, instead of possessions, first. According to Merriam-Webster, the third definition of sacrifice is the destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else and/or something given up or lost. Is it really a sacrifice if you don’t FEEL it? For the sake of sanity and peace of mind, am I willing to get rid of hundreds of dollars’ worth of stuff piling up in “my room?”
As we continue our study of stewardship, think about anything you have that causes you stress just because it is there in your house. Discuss it with your spouse and perhaps you can decide to alleviate that burden to your well-being by getting rid of it, even if you don’t get any money for it. Merriam-Webster says stewardship is the conducting, supervising, or managing of something. God has given us stewardship not just of things but of our minds and bodies. If we cannot function well due to stress, especially stress caused by our own clutter, how can we serve God and exhibit the fruits of the spirit including contentment and joy?