I love stories where someone has a need and then that need is met. My good friend Ashley gave me a great piece of advice: “Start getting rid of stuff now. It’s not too early!” She knows what she’s talking about; Ashley and her husband, have sold everything they owned twice, once for YWAM and once for Yearoupe. After talking to her, I started going through my things. It’s amazing how much stuff one can amass!
Here are a few stories of someone’s met need:
- A folding table was picked up by a lady who was just starting out her jewelry business and who needed a table to display her earrings
- Old towels were picked up by a guy (during our flash flood pouring rain day!) to be used for sound proofing panels. He paid in quarters and dimes.
- An emergency backpack was given as a donation to a local Boy Scouts of America chapter
- Our local food bank needs hotel toiletries, toothbrushes and old sock donations so I happily supplied those
- Plastic bins were picked up by a guy who recycled cans/glasses and his cardboard bags were not cutting it anymore with all the rain
- A food scale was picked up by a guy who had been looking for a long time and had been scouring Goodwill daily
- Goodwill is right across from the library and a few days ago I saw a man in front of the library wearing the exact Vans hat I had donated to Goodwill a week earlier! I knew it was the same one because the founder of Vans had signed the one I donated and his hat was autographed in the same place
I’m so glad that things I didn’t use will be used by someone else. I don’t miss the stuff I don’t have any more and I feel lighter and freer. It’s interesting, how when one thing is set in order, you notice other things that need to be tidied up. I notice the dust on my window sill now and the grease in my kitchen fan and when I clean it, my home is that much cleaner and nicer. I’m relaxed and happy at home, everything I have is useful and sometimes that purpose is bringing joy!
I think it’s the same with our spiritual life. We walk around with all this spiritual baggage – of things that we don’t need, worries and anxieties, memories we won’t let go of because of guilt, shame, or guilty pleasure. When we start peering into metaphorical closets, rummaging through drawers and cleaning out the gunk, we feel lighter and freer. And we will also start noticing the small things that we were insensitive to because there were too many things that distracted us before.
As we invite Jesus to live in our hearts, we get rid of the junk and are open to his abundant joy. Romans 15:13 reads, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
While I have less stuff, I feel fuller. I challenge you to examine the things in your life and chuck out those that serve no purpose! #springcleaning
