What's It Worth? | The Worshipper's Thought of the Day

I watch very little television, which pretty much explains why I tend to be so behind on what's new or current in pop culture.  However, there's a program on A&E that fascinates me called "Hoarders." (I even have a couple of tweeps--Twitter followers, that is--who banter back and forth with me about the show from time to time.)  The show literally chronicles the deliverance of hoarders and their struggle to let go of seemingly valuable items (or junk) that threaten their ability to securely maintain what's truly valuable.

This morning, the thought came to me of how we tend to hoard all manner of things that, although may appear to be of value to us, are actually quite worthless in comparison to what is ultimately valuable.  I believe this is a tangential meaning of what was said in the Bible about laying up our treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot corrupt them (Matthew 6:19-20).  When we place greater value on the material things we hoard than what's ultimately valuable (i.e. Heaven's mandate), it drastically shifts our perspective to one of protecting at all costs that which is worthless (Luke 12:15-22).  The shift also causes us to ignore how our behavior effects what's truly valuable.  For example, the television program shows people obliviously losing their spouses, families, and homes because of their hoarding; and yet the hoarders are still fighting tooth and nail to hold on to their junk.

So my question for each of us is, "What are you holding on to that's totally shifted your perspective from Heaven's mandate on your life?"  Hoarders accumulate and hold on to such a large quantity of junk that it takes over everything in their dwelling places, ultimately overshadowing and leaving no room for that which is of value.  This leads me to ask another question: "What's being overshadowed by your junk?  What of value could you potentially lose by holding on to worthless goods?"

It's not too late to clean your space and get the junk out of your life.  2011 is just a few days away, so what better way to ring in the New Year?  GOD desires for us to enjoy our life spaces, but we've got to free ourselves of the clutter by letting go.  Whether it be experiences, failures, memories, people, whatever--if it's not adding to you, it's preventing you from being added to.  There's no point in us praying for increase and enlarged territories when our capacity to receive is filled with worthless goods.  It's imperative we first become good stewards of our life spaces by ridding and eradicating them of the junk.  That's what positions us to be blessed beyond measure and live in GOD's overflow, not the overabundance of junk we accumulate on our own.