Wokingahm Word article - August 2010
What are you hoarding for? ...
Are you a squirrel? I hate to discard anything – ‘it might come in handy one day’. When we moved into this house 27 years ago, the first thing we did, was to replace the gas fire in the sitting room (plus its veneered wood surround). Yes, I put the old gas fire in the loft, just in case. Then for years I joked that I needed to enlarge the loft hatch in order to get the gas fire out! Many years after fitting an enlarged hatch (this morning!), I wrestled the gas fire out of the loft, into the car and to the dump. Accompanying it, were various speakers, old turntables, amplifiers and a 7” tape recorder. We are on the road to down-sizing!
Of course some fortunate, self-disciplined people don’t allow themselves to accumulate clutter, and are quick to discard items they no longer use. But I don’t think I am a lone squirrel as friends proudly showed us recently their vegetable patch covered in their old carpets (to keep down the weeds)!
Our lives can be rather similar (at least mine). Habits that have grown to be part of us, some bad habits that we should have dumped but somehow can’t, or we promise ourselves that we will do one day when we have a larger ‘loft hatch’! Paul, writing to the church in Corinth (1 Cor: 9v23 – 27) said something like this:
‘You’ve all been watching the Football World Cup and the tennis at Wimbledon. Everyone competes, but one wins. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal, or cup, but we’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living! I’m staying alert and in tip-top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else about (living for Jesus) and then missing out myself.’
A member of St. Sebastian's Church for Churches Together in Wokingham