Clean It Up, Pack It Up, Move It Out

I spent 49 hours this past week organizing and administering my youth group garage sale (with the help of a friend and the fabulous youth leaders). Let me tell you, that is a long, long time to spend on a garage sale in one week. That doesn't even count the time that I spent during the month before to prep everything before garage sale week. I'm sure that you all are asking, "Why in the world is she talking about this? I have no desire to listen to her talk about how long she spent organizing something that has nothing to do with me." If you are saying this, then I am right with you. I wouldn't want to listen to it either. However, after a week of sorting through people's donations (our youth group is the always a mission fundraiser and so we get tons of donations, which we do ask for), I learned a few things. First, people have a lot of junk. I mean do you really have to give me the  old jeans that you had that were covered in paint? Or the ash tray with cigarette butts still in it? I do not need those things. There were so many things that came in that I was like "Someone seriously bought that??" We are such a materialistic society, and so we often buy the "next new thing". It is a serious downfall of the American people. Secondly, I learned that people don't always do what you want them to do. I am one of those people who, when given a task, likes to get it done and move on. Some people, however, like to take their sweet little time, filled with breaks, before completing a task. Lastly, and most important, we all have things to "clean out". One lady told me, "I really purged this year. I went through everything. I started back at Christmas time going through every closet, etc." Our own lives are often so cluttered that sometimes we can barely see the "floor" of our life. So often we fill our lives so full with friends, family, school, work, vacation, and outings that we barely have space to maneuver through the room. Our treasures should not be all the stuff that we fill our lives with, but rather the hope of eternal life. So many times, Jesus reiterates the fact that we are not to set our hearts on earthly treasures that will not last, but to place them on things that will last for eternity:

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

~ Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)

"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, this storing us treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life."

~ 1 Timothy 6: 17-19 (ESV)

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;"

~ 2 Corinthians 4: 7-9 (ESV)

So what is keeping you from living radically for God? What do you need to clean out in your life in order to get closer to God? I know that I have things to work on and, because you are also human, I am sure that you do to - we just have to desire God more than our things in order to find them. So I encourage you to place your treasure in places where it will not be broken or stolen - or end up in a garage sale. 

Blessings, 

Hannah