When you live in a big house, you don’t have to be too careful about accumulating things. There is plenty of room without crowding, and the temptation is to be lax about what to keep and what to throw away.
Yes, I’m one of those people who tends to keep the old one when he gets a new one. Old software, old tools,old clothes, old bicycle tires. Why? Well, you never know when the new one might break, and so you keep the old one for a spare.
Okay, that’s irrational, I know, and you don’t actually say that to yourself. It’s just a given. If you are one of those clutter-free people, you won’t understand, but thanks for being kind to those of us with this disability.
But the need to downsize is more than just a time to reflect on our personal habits and clean out our closets. It’s also a reality check for how very rich we are compared to most other cultures, and how blessed we are not to have to worry about space. In many cultures, whole families live in one room, and in close proximity to other whole families. There is little privacy and hardly any time for being totally alone with your thoughts, not to mention your possessions.
Downsizing on Thanksgiving week. It’s a great time to be grateful for God’s blessings, mindful of our tendency to take those blessings for granted.
It’s also a great time to reflect on the reality that in the end, we all downsize. All that we have accumulated will be left behind, with only our relationship to Jesus remaining.
“For we brought nothing into the world,
and we can take nothing out of it.
1 Timothy 6:7