January 6

‘Worship is giving God the best that He has given you.’ – Oswald chambers

(I apologize for the lack of posting yesterday. As always, if someone would like to comment on the devotional from January 5, please feel free to do so.)

                One of my wife’s favorite shows on television is Hoarders. If you’ve seen it, you would be hard pressed to state that it isn’t an interesting show. If you are unfamiliar with it, here’s a brief synopsis: An individual is identified as having hoarded all manner of physical items over a number of years until they are now at a point where their home is unlivable and often their health, both mental and physical is in danger. A cleanup crew and a psychologist are dispatched to attempt to help the hoarder clean up and then get treatment in the hope of sustained non-hoarding.

                The old adage that ‘the stuff you own ends up owning you’ is very fitting for many of these cases. The hoarder has accumulated so many items that they place value on, that the items have become a burden and consumed their entire lives.

                There is a psychological aspect to all of this of course, which is where the problem begins. The individual with this illness has exhibited a refusal or inability to let go of their emotions or experiences. They have mentally hoarded first, which then is manifest in material.

                Property ownership really is a blessing. In many parts of the world, people do not have the means to own anything other than their own survival. However, we are not meant to keep that which is given. We should pass on that which we feel holds value to those we love, thus making room for new things which we might love in the future. If we are only consuming, without giving, then we quickly become bloated and dysfunctional.

                The case of the material hoarder is analogous to what happens to the Christian spiritually if blessings are hoarded. Our blessings rot and get in the way of our relationship with God and with our fellow human beings if they are accumulated. Instead, we are to give our blessings back to God in the form of praise, so that others might see what the Lord has done for us.

                We must understand that our blessings are not our own. Without God, no blessings could be given; hence it is not of our own volition that they are received. A life constantly taking in of blessings without reciprocal praise quickly becomes just as dysfunctional as that of the material hoarder. We begin to value our blessings more than we value from whence they were given. Even worse, we begin to buy into the lie that we are responsible solely for our blessings, taking God entirely out of the equation.