Job 10:12

In your love, you granted me life,

   In your providence, you preserved my spirit.

 

I have a friend who was telling me he likes to pick one thing each Saturday to throw away. It is supposedly his way of being not a hoarder. I do have some hoarder tendencies, so I have set up rules to keep myself in check. Looking at this room and the guest bedroom, one would wonder if that were true. I have five or six computers in this room and eight or nine in the other. Granted two in this room are client’s and two in the other room are just passing through from someone else, but it is a lot. Some people only have one or have to share or have none.

This first stitch was mainly put forth as having received the dual gifts of love and life from God. Only in my favorite did this sequence flow. “Love” was also “kindness”, “a gift”, “care”, “favor”, and the stronger “steadfast love”. Love seemed the best, especially for the used sequence. “Granted me” was also “gave me” and “bestowed on me”, with granted seemingly the best fit.

“Providence” was also “care”, “visit”, “command”, and “precept”. “Preserved” was also “watched over”, “sustained”, and “kept”. I picked the two “P’s”. And “spirit” was also “breath” and “life”. I picked not repeating life and ignored the less general breath. There is a sense of “You gave me life and preserved it” that is evident in the alternatives, but still present as an inference.

(Let’s not forget the ten hard drives from computers I already threw away.) I have a compulsion to close cabinet doors and to keep stuff that might be useful later. I have been described as frugal or cheap or the like. I like to think of it as being a good steward.

God gave me my life and he has preserved both it and my spirit, but He did so for His own purposes. Yes, He loves me and wants me to spend eternity in heaven, but there is a bigger usefulness for me than just me. When looking at the whole world, I can only make a small dent. I like to try and make them in areas using reduce, reuse, and recycle from the kid’s school programs. I want the best computers that allow me to use technology, but I do not want to just throw old ones into the trash and hope that my data does not get used or that we won’t run out of space for our garbage. (I have this vision of an atomic recycler, maybe from Star Trek, as our ultimate how to care for the universe’s trash, but no idea how to make it so nor the skills to try. Maybe the little kid will.)

Anyway, I have had room, so I kept these computers waiting for the day I could use them or at least ensure all my data was off. Having two client computers has pushed me to be more efficient with space and so finally I have taken steps to get them gone. Just as I wish to be efficient and a good steward for computers, I wish to do so for everything I interact with be it boots, watches, clothes, baseball cards, etc.

And I have rules that help me do so.

• Nothing in the garage to prevent putting the cars up each night.
• Nothing in the attic that is being stored for later.
• No extra furniture that does not fit or have a use.

We are basically at the furniture limit, and I am having to get rid of things little by little to make sure I have enough walking space, especially in this room. I also will have to start clearing out some things to make the guest room closet functional again. But somethings are not urgent enough to tackle today.

God gave us life. God preserves us. We need to recognize this. We need to give Him glory for it. And we should be motivated by it to do the things He calls us to do, and to do so in a manner that reflects well upon us as His representative. Anyway, be of good spirit when trying to not be a hoarder.

 

(Written 12/14/22, Posted 1/4/23, Job 220)