Monday, May 21, 2007

Stuff...one faint thought

This past month, I've been thinking about stuff. My stuff. My belongings. My collection of goods. I find myself looking around thinking, "This stuff really doesn't mean anything." It carries no lasting value. I'm sure at some point I'll want to trade in this stuff, which will become old stuff, and get some new stuff, but it ultimately never changes my life. So, I have some meaningful stuff, but am not a collector of stuff.

Recently, I came across an unfortunate piece of information. The bottom line of that information...a woman was describing how upset she was that some of her stuff had been thrown out in order to help more people. I hope you can follow. I speak loosely because this incident comes in so many different shades and shapes that it entangles each of our lifes. Holding on to Stuff. A few nights back, I went to pick up leftovers from Panara Bread Co. for one of our GraceRiver events. I met a man there who was waiting for leftovers as well. An engineer whose wife and kids up and left him a year ago so now he spends his nights picking up leftovers from several of the Paneras and delivering to Salvation Army, other food shelters, and homeless women and kids in one of the homeless hubs of Orlando. This guy has taken lemons and made lemonade. I admire that. He's on to something. People, they are important, but do we value them enough to inconvenience our lives and forget about our "stuff" if it helps someone else? Just a thought.

P.S. It's spring! You know what that means...get rid of some of your stuff! It might help someone else! I speak of both physical stuff and emotional stuff here. If you're holding on to emotional stuff...takes a few steps beyond that and love the people in your life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Steph,

I was just reading my daily email I get that is like a devotion, basically a brain jumpstart for my time with God. It was talking about encouragement, and basically on the same lines what what you are talking about. There are a few questions at the end, one was pray that God will reveal a person to you that needs encouragement. You and Carly kept coming into my head. Now I am here reading your blog. I just want to say YEAH!! to what you said. You are so right, we need to be conscious of people and not our stuff that is meaningless. We are here to gain people for the kingdom, not stuff.

Thanks,
LeeAnn