The Most Toys
Have you ever seen the bumper sticker (likely on a fancy sports car) that says something like:

Whoever dies with the most toys wins!

Take boats for example. (For some reason, boat jokes seem to stick with me.) What is a boat? It’s a hole in the water into which you throw money. What are the happiest two days in a boat owner’s life? They’re the day he buys it and the day he sells it. While these quips poke fun at boat owners, the principle applies to many things we have. The novelty of new things soon wears off, but the price we pay for them goes on and on.

During the course of our lifetimes, we’re bound to face tough challenges. Some come suddenly from without—like a tornado that rips apart your house or an unprovoked illness that lands you in the hospital. Others are of our own making. Some result from a momentary bad decision, as in an auto accident, while others build from a series of small careless decisions that eventually overwhelm us. One particular form of this last category involves what we have and what we keep.

Less than two years ago, I moved from a large house with lots of storage space into a condo with half the garage and about one fourth the space. Preparation for the move involved months of work to sell, donate, throw away, and pack things accumulated over more than 25 years. After countless trips to the dump, we ended up filling a large dumpster and still left many things behind for the new owner.

After the move, my little condo ended up packed tightly with the remains from this carnage. Yes, the closets were full. Yes, the furniture was tight. Yes, the garage walls were lined with over a hundred boxes! But at least I could breathe a sigh of relief. I made it into my little home along with my best stuff, and life felt pretty comfortable.

Then last June the Lord blessed me with a wonderful wife. She too had downsized from her house many years ago into a townhouse slightly smaller than my condo—without a garage. Her place, like mine, had little unused space. We wanted to keep open the option of a long distance move in the near future, so we chose not to buy or rent a larger place. Since she owned her place and I just rented, it seemed simple for me to just move into her place—until we considered what to do with all of our things.

Possessions
We all know the upside of having things. They protect us from the elements, give us comfort and some security, help us get things done, inform and entertain us, and help us sustain life. Unfortunately, these benefits do not come without a cost.

Do you own your possessions or do they own you? In a very real sense, our possessions place a burden on us. Yet usually we fail to even consider the downside. Thankfully, the Maker of the heaven and earth has given us some insight into this other perspective of possessions.

Have you ever noticed how fleeting is the satisfaction that comes from the things we receive? Consider a typical Christmas. The tree glows with ornaments, tinsel, and lights. Colorful packages lie beneath carefully wrapped and arranged. Wide-eyed and excited, the children rush in to relish in the fun. The wait is over. Christmas has come after all. Then in a whir, paper flies, this year’s must-have toy is opened to squeals of delight. But after a few hours the excitement fades and the kids end up playing inside a big empty box or outside in the snow.

Our appetites for things are basically insatiable. We naturally want more. Perhaps you’ve heard the ad for the potato chip. “Nobody can eat just one.” The mere suggestion from an advertisement has us running to the refrigerator or pantry. The smell from a bakery captivates our senses, and before long those fresh, hot, doughnuts melt in our mouths and fill us with delight. Of course, they also fill us with a lot of unneeded calories. The CDC reports that two thirds of adult Americans are overweight and one third are obese. Obviously, Americans lack self-control when it comes to eating.

But this is just one symptom. Today Americans also hold more debt than ever before http://mwhodges.home.att.net/family_a.htm. But why? At least part of the answer gets back to this same desire to have more and better things. It’s the excitement and feel of that spacious new home and the pride of living in that trendy or upscale neighborhood. It’s that new car smell and the feeling of power as it whisks you effortlessly to your next destination in comfort and style. And its viewers mesmerized as shopping networks dangle that next must-have gadget or glittering piece of jewelry before their eyes. Of course, this lust for more is part of the human condition. Solomon put it this way:

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

Our possessions and drive to get more dominate our hours and rob us of our sleep. Lunesta™ and Ambien CR™ are just two current examples of big business attempts to offer a temporary respite from the anxiety that flows from this mad rush for things. Solomon continues:

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. (Ecclesiastes 5:12)

These earthly treasures are also subject to loss. Roofs deteriorate and leak, cars rust and break down, clothing wears out, and weeds grow. We build vaults and armored cars and insulate our assets with insurance policies, but despite all of our precautions, we have no assurance that they will not be stolen. Jesus declared:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Even wealth itself is not permanent. Something as simple as money presents a real problem. You must provide a place for it. Usually you pay taxes on it. Yet most likely, it will melt away over time. Even if you hide your money in a mattress, and assuming it doesn’t get burned up or stolen, inflation will certainly and methodically erode its value. Again we hear from Solomon:

Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. (Proverbs 23:4-5)

And ultimately if there’s anything left when we die, we cannot take it with us anyway.

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (I Timothy 6:7)

We’re still not done. The progression of this futile march descends one final step. What is it that you’re working for? What will be its final disposition? If it’s physical, you can be assured that ultimately it will be completely and utterly destroyed.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (II Peter 3:10)

What then is worth any effort? Jesus gives us the rest of the story:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:20-21)

He certainly demonstrated that. His view was so heavenward, that frequently people could not understand Him (John 2:18; 3:4; 4:11; 6:60; 11:13). While we know that Judas carried a money bag (John 12:6) giving our Lord access to some funds, we know too that He lived in poverty (II Corinthians 8:9)—specifically, Jesus had the clothes on His back (John 19:23-24), and no place to live (Matthew 8:20).

The Apostle Paul took basically nothing with him as he made multiple missionary journeys across the Mediterranean. He too made mention of his lack of basic material things.

Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; (I Corinthians 4:11)

A Moving Experience
With that grim, sobering perspective of possessions, let’s get back to my story. When you move, you really come face-to-face with your stuff. There’s no sidestepping it. You have to look at it, decide whether or not to keep it, and move it somewhere. This all takes effort. A friend of mine said that he’s moved so often, that moving for him is easy. He has learned to travel lightly in life and has minimized the amount of baggage he drags with him. Most of us haven’t.

Being sort of an organized person, I’ve done my best to keep track of my stuff. We packed infrequently used things into banker’s boxes, cataloged them, and placed them in storage. A review of that catalog reveals a fairly reasonable list of items kept, but there’s still a problem. After all of this selling, giving away, and sorting, we still have too much stuff!

You may have noticed that storage is big business these days. Self-storage in particular is growing at a rate of nearly ten percent per year http://www.selfstorage.org/pdf/FactSheet.pdf. Daily we’re bombarded with advertisements urging us to buy that next must-have possession—if for no better reason than because it’s such a good deal. The pressure to buy is relentless. It takes real effort not to accumulate things.

It’s amazing to realize what a small fraction of the things we own we actually use in our day-to-day lives. On our honeymoon, my wife and I stayed in hotels that had just one room, call it a bedroom, and one bathroom. On our vacation, later in the year, we stayed in a small condo with a bedroom, living room, and tiny kitchen. How could we survive in such cramped quarters? Not only did we survive, we were very relaxed and comfortable. It doesn’t take a lot of space to live—even to live very comfortably. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons we take vacations—to get away from it all.

The point is, as vacations demonstrate, we have a few essentials and a whole lot of non-essentials. “When in doubt, throw it out.” Unless it’s a certified collectible or irreplaceable heirloom, if you’re not using it, get rid of it. If it’s valuable, sell it. Otherwise, give it away or throw it away. In short, “use it our lose it.”

Invariably a few days or weeks after you’ve parted with a bunch of stuff, you’ll encounter a need for something that’s now gone forever. Expect it. But the need for that thing will likely be limited, and life will go on. The bulk of the stuff will just be out of your way and out of your life, and you’ll be relieved to live without it.

But what about those things that you’re really not sure about? A first step might be box them up and put them in storage—“out of sight, out of mind.” At least you’re less likely to trip over them, and this way you can condition your mind to the idea of parting with them. If after some reasonable period of time, you’ve been able to live without them, perhaps now you’ve demonstrated that you really don’t need those things anymore after all, and you can toss the box and gain a little more freedom in your life.

A Better Bumper Sticker
Now here’s an answer for that bumper sticker. Whoever dies loses! The trick is to beat this mortality problem and certainly not to be distracted in life by the pursuit of things. And just to set the record straight, as far as things go, God’s got that covered too for His children. It goes like this. Christ is called the “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2) and all things were made for Him (Colossians 1:16). Then we proceed from there with our standing:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; (Romans 8:17a)
…no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7b)
…heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? (James 2:5b)

As we’ve seen, whatever physical thing you’re working so hard to get or keep—no matter how durable or massive—will be destroyed. So what is important? Jesus put it this way:

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36–37).

Ultimately it’s life that counts. Perhaps that’s why some spend their fortunes for medical cures. They live in hospitals and devote all of their energy in a futile effort to stay alive. Our socialized medical system is swiftly headed down a steep hill to a certain cliff as a whole nation desperately clings to life. The problem is: man was made to die. (Genesis 3:19).

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:22)

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world…. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (I John 2:15a, 17)

Thanks to God’s gift of a Savior, celebrated each Christmas, we can beat the curse of this physical body and this physical world. Yes, both will be destroyed (which is a very good thing) and made perfect, but what really matters is the spiritual—not the physical. Possessions are merely temporary props to help us through this life. When they get in the way of what’s really important and weigh us down, we need to have the courage and wisdom to dump them. The Apostle Paul said:

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (I Corinthians 15:54–58)

News from Home
Early in 2006 Mom faced serious health challenges. Two operations and a near fatal heart attack placed her on a long, hard road to recovery. While she has recovered now, medical problems continue to plague my parents on a daily basis. Thankfully family health permitted us all to celebrate my wedding to Betsy Sawyer on June 10. The moved out of the condo and into Betsy’s was completed the end of the year. I remain in the same group at IBM.