All My Worldly Goods

A couple of weeks ago a friend said he was thinking of selling all his possessions and moving to Venice (California, not Italy) and living on the beach.  While not quite ready to do that, it did make me think.

In 1999, I went about 6 months without owning a car.  While it was slightly inconvenient, it was also liberating.  I didn't have a car payment or insurance.  I didn't have to worry about finding a parking space.  Price of gas?  Who cares?

We all have so much stuff.  Look around your house or apartment.  Gobs and gobs of things we just can't live without.  How many people with garages use it for storage and those of us in apartments have an offsite storage place. 

Think about how much time you spend cleaning the stuff, taking care of the stuff, washing and ironing the stuff.  What would you do if a hurricane came through and took all of your stuff?  We see people on TV called hoarders who are buried by their stuff.  We do not control our possessions, they control us.

And every day, we are bombarded by messages that we need more stuff.  Hey!  Get the new iPhone; wait, you don't have the latest digital camera?  What about more clothes and shoes?  Can you possibly live without the latest and greatest?  And now that the Christmas shopping season has started in earnest, we will go even more crazy getting stuff for other people.

And all this time dealing with stuff takes us away from thinking about God.  While you were in the checkout line, did you think about saying a prayer?  Did you think to thank Him for all this stuff?  I am just as guilty as the rest but I know I have to work to not be enslaved but all this stuff!