My husband and I have made some really tough decisions lately, at least that’s what I thought. We bought a few acres in beautiful Prairieville, LA in order to build a house. (That’s not the tough part)
But, before building that house, I wanted to be completely out of debt. Take all of the money we currently pay on a house note and apply it to bills one-by-one. Until all are paid off. Great plan, right? Dave Ramsey would be so proud of me. (Still not too tough, right?)
Here’s where the really tough decisions come in…we decided to forgo building right away, sell our current home, and outright buy a mobile home with the proceeds from the house. Yes, a mobile home. A trailer. A house on wheels!
Now when I grew up, in my little microcosm of middle-classdom, homes didn’t come on wheels. They were securely attached to a giant slab of concrete. They came with running water, and more importantly, a working toilet. We didn’t have to arrange for a well to be dug to get water or for someone to put a sewage system into the ground. We just had them. They just were.
The thought of living in this mobile home terrified me. I woke one night in a complete panic because the realization hit me that I would no longer own an attic or a two-car garage. I no longer had a closet that was the same size as my bedroom. Where am I going to put all of my stuff?
All my stuff!
I obsessed about it. I cried about it. I incessantly talked about it! My stuff needs a home.
And then I prayed about it. And for once, in this entire crazy process, God actually answered me. Well, answered me in a way in which I understood.
On a recommendation from a friend, and most likely because of my obsessing, I was told to read Jen Hatmaker’s Seven. I had gotten three pages into the introduction when perspective leaped off of the page and slapped me across the face. At $50k a year, you are in the top 1% of the world in terms of wealth. Top 1%!
“What does it communicate when half the global population lives on less than $2 a day, and we can’t manage a fulfilling life on twenty-five thousand times that amount?”
Jen Hatmaker, I get it!
God, I get it! I am humbling myself before the Lord so he will lift me up.
I have been given the opportunity and the blessing to minimize the stuff that has been getting between me and my relationship with the Lord. The stuff that has clogged my mind and made me an ugly person.
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4
This is my blessing! And by accepting this blessing, it is going to allow me to build on my relationship with Christ and teach my kids the worth of that relationship, instead of the worth of a relationship with their stuff!
We should all take a humbling look at ourselves and see if we need to experience this blessing as well.
Amy, a great lesson for us all. Stuff so often weighs us down. I often think, “Why are we so much more relaxed when we are on vacation?” Often the answer is because we don’t have that “stuff” weighing us down. We are free from all of it. When I realized that, I began the process of throwing stuff out, donating what was still good, and buying less. Still a process, but I agree with your sentiment here. And we should remain grateful for each and every blessing that we do have in our life, realizing where it comes from. Thanks for the thought today.
Hey, Amy –
Great post!