It doesn’t matter if you are moving cross country or around
the block, moving is no fun. It turns up your life and actually has you reflect
on things. Since each move has you either boxing, re-boxing or moving unopened
boxes from the last move. Each item has some memory attached to why you keep it
or some value. George Carlin said it best when he joked about “stuff” and how
we keep getting more “stuff” and how we need to keep buying bigger homes to
keep our stuff.
We are moving into a “furnished” home with someone else’s “stuff”
so we don’t have to move our furniture. I am looking at shelving, boxes of
papers, clothes that have never been worn in years and a few personal effects
that are important. Through this all on thing I notice is “stuff” fills our
lives and distracts us from our relationship with God.
I think of motorcycles which became the main distraction. I
started racing with the best of intentions, where I would spread the gospel “on
any Sunday” to those who could not make it to church. It ended as just being an
idol that replaced God and became my “life”. When God first gave the
commandment that said don’t have any gods before Him or carved idols, He was
talking to a superstitious bunch that though the life blood came from something
they could make. But He also knew it would be applied today where logic and
science has dismissed the existence of any higher power thus making our “gods”
more ourselves and our “idols” our things.
Which gets me back to moving since we have already moves a pickup
truck load, a 30 foot trailer full, 4 horses, 3 dogs and a cat. I am back to
fill up a 15 foot U-Haul with the “stuff” we could not fit. This is everything
from tools we could not fit to Veronica’s high school notebooks she refuses to
throw away. I start to question my logic and wonder if any of this is necessary
and how much are idols.
I packed away a lacrosse stick that had been in the garage
for decades, tucked in a corner. The last time it was used was in 1980 at
Georgia Tech when I tried the sport. So why is it taking up space? I have no
clue, really!! I try to justify that I will use it to toss balls for the dogs,
but we got rid of the only one that played that game. This is going on for a
ton of “stuff” that I just can’t seem to let go and yet I am upset at straining
to move boxes of papers that I deem worthless, but has value to Vern. At the
same time Mama is upset at me for carting papers that I have deemed “important”
and she thinks are junk.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know but I am sitting in
bed with my laptop pondering what I am doing today while packing crap and wondering
if we will every need to used it or not. I must analyze each item to determine
if we need it how much does it cost to replace and will it take room away from
something else needed. Instead I should be thanking God for the joy and
pleasure he has given me over my life.
What we all need to take from this is forget the idols
and the junk, simple!