Simplification-station and Blessing

I cleaned out my great-grandma’s house when I was a kid, after she passed. Not to be dishonoring, but what a disaster zone it was, the entire home reeked and was filled to the gills with junk! You couldn’t even walk, there was no floor space, mountains of things everywhere… I remember the look on my dad’s face when we surveyed the task at hand, it was half-overwhelmed and half, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” I vowed that day never to become a pack-rat.

It’s no shocker that our favorite pastor in the country is Rob Bell in Michigan. We call him our ‘road pastor,’ listen to him as frequently as possible, and could probably quote him in our sleep. One thing that he said last spring, which stuck with us was,

“if you were moving tomorrow, what would you keep, sell, give away, recycle or throw away.”
Then he said, “why not do that today?”

In our culture of consumerism and accumulation, where more is more, this question of Bell’s has become something that Los and I come back to again and again as a heart-check. I’m all for having nice things that we really like, but not into stockpiling for “some day.” We are one of the only families on our street that can park two cars in our garage. I think this is sad. Our neighbors assure us that when we’re older, we’ll join them in parking outside, because we’ll have way more stuff by then. I hope not!

Last spring, the day we left for Australia, we decided to clean out our closets. As we purged, the pile grew higher and higher with things we haven’t worn in years. A lot of stuff was in great shape and could easily be sold or donated. To clean felt like an act of obedience, yet I had no idea how God would use it.

Well, we found out an hour later. We didn’t have to leave our house that day until noon, so after the Purge-Fest 2007, Los drove to the gym. When he left the gym, he came upon a homeless woman, looking for help. As he engaged her and she shared her story, it became clear that she needed some clothes nice enough to interview in, for jobs; to get back on her feet. And she “just so happened” to wear my exact size. Thanks Lord. Carlos told her to hang on, and came back 20 minutes later with 10+ outfits for her to wear. She was astounded and joyful, caressing her new clothes. She shared with him how hopeful this made her feel. Amen. We drove to the airport feeling warm in our hearts that day. It is amazing how easy it is to bless other people! We have so much stuff that we don’t need, that someone else could really use. Join us in asking Bell’s question.