The Battle of Our Stuff

Well, this week I'm in the middle of moving offices where I work. Like many of you there are not many more things that I would rather do than spend my time packing up stuff that I don't even remember acquiring. Let alone sometimes remembering what they are . . . 

My wife would tell you that I have a fondness for keeping way too much of what has passed through my hands. I would argue that I find it difficult to discard items that at some point in my life I deemed valuable enough to keep. (Hoarder, no. Official in charge of archiving valuable mementos of my life on earth, yes.) 

Yet I'm being forced to come to terms during this experience that I have accumulated way more than I need over the past decade at work as I sift through my stuff. And this exercise is also teaching me that there is freedom in purging your life of stuff that you find you no longer need. 

Randy Alcorn has a great quote about this topic, "Every increased possession adds increased anxiety on to our lives." 

Possessions do add stress to our lives—because they need to be cleaned, organized, and cared for. Everything we own becomes our responsibility to deal with and take care of. Possessions are not passive, they are not just acquired, stored, and forgotten while they care for themselves. They require our attention. Everything we own takes up physical space in our home and mental space in our mind.

Which brings us to this less recognized truth, "Owning less means living more."

Interested in learning how to better loosen the hold that your stuff has on your life?

Every journey requires us to be aware of at least two things, our starting position and our destination. A true desire to change how we look at our possessions is a great way to begin. Joshua Becker says it this way, “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.”

You see, not only do our possessions invade our freedom and quality of life, they can also do damage to our spiritual lives. Charles Spurgeon said it best, “You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.” 

Few of us who have given this much thought would argue that our possessions can distract us from true contentment and joy. A great way to determine your own status is to take a quick inventory of how you spend your time, for instance, how much time is invested in acquiring, or maintaining the stuff you own?  

And before you think this is a problem unique to our generation, check out what Jesus Christ said about this issue to a rich young man two thousand years ago, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” Now it is important to remember that Jesus was not addressing a crowd of people, He was talking directly to a wealthy young ruler who was asking Him what he needed to do to become a follower of Jesus. In this case, Jesus knew that this man loved his riches above all. And that is the truth behind this scripture, that when our love for anything becomes greater than our love for Jesus, it is time to deal quickly and severely with that desire. And a great deal of the time what we love the most is our stuff.

Jesus was not immune to the trappings of this world, including materialism. After all the Bible tells us that Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because He was tempted in every way that we are. But He did not sin! (Hebrews 4:15) And one of the main distractions when we struggle with our love of our stuff is that we lose sight of those around us. But the opposite is also true! The less we focus on ourselves the more we are aware of those who need our help. If this is a issue in our lives, we are not able to help the people that Jesus wants us to help in our circle. 

So now you might be thinking that the key is to organize your stuff, to get a better handle on your inventory and what is required to maintain your possessions. I would gently point you to this statement from Courtney Carver, “If organizing your stuff worked, don’t you think you’d be done by now?”

Organization is a means, but it is not the means to this end. It is a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Most challenges that we face ultimately point to a issue of our hearts. Jesus was not saying that we need to sell everything we have and live in poverty, but He was saying that anything that stands between us and Him should be harshly and quickly dealt with before it becomes a wall between us and our Savior.  

So perhaps a better solution is staying focused on your goal of living a life of freedom along with maintaining your quest to reduce your possessions. Examine the investment in time and resources that our possessions require of us and make that the benchmark for whether we keep or give away what is holding us back from true freedom. Each milestone that you achieve will motivate you to continue your journey as you discover the advantages of owning less and living more.

But remain aware that our real battle is that our "want to" needs to be adjusted. (Remember that this is a heart issue at it's core) I believe that this can be achieved on several levels but for me the awareness of how much effort is required to maintain my stuff is what is helping me to reduce my desire for more stuff. This coupled with a growing awareness that my time could be better spent on other things that matter more is helping to  cement this change in my life. This might not be the catalyst for your change but if you are serious about starting this journey I believe that will discover your own personal motivation to finish strong. 

Let's finish this blog with a couple of quotes, the first from Joshua Becker, “Your life is too valuable to waste chasing material possessions.” And the second quote is from Jesus, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his soul?" (Mark 8:36)

Good luck on your own personal journey to freedom!