There’s a fairly new show on A&E entitled Hoarders that captures life as a lot of people know it. Each show documents the lives of generally two people who cannot let go of things. They hoard all kinds of things, and they are suffering as a result. Their families often are trapped as well. Homes fall under decay. Cities threaten to levy fines and/or condemn houses altogether because of the health hazards that are created by the sickness of hoarding.
On the show, counselors work to help those entrapped in their hoarding ways through psychology, as well as through the clean-up process. It’s painful to watch people anguishing over getting rid of what to most of us is junk. People desperately cling to what seems to be insignificant. Oftentimes, people even hoard trash and rotten food. It’s saddening to watch, but what’s even worse is to see how so many see themselves as not having any problem.
We can become obsessed with things and not even be hoarders. Jesus spoke of such people (Luke 12:15). But life doesn’t consist of the things we collect. Life is about much more important things- God, community, love, family, friends, and etc. The things that we cling to are things that endure.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5, HCSB.
We cling, by faith, to something that isn’t subject to destruction, cannot be tainted, is resistant to decay, and his heavenly in its constitution. What God gives as his inheritance endures. It lasts.
Instead of desperately clinging to things that do not endure, may we remember the things that do!
