Look At All This Stuff

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oxes, boxes, boxes! Big boxes, little boxes, round boxes, square boxes.  Honestly, if I see one more box, I believe I’ll go absolutely bonkers.  For the past week, I had been concentrating all my efforts on moving from my dorm room to an apartment across town.  I never knew one person could accumulate so much stuff in the space of five years.  I was firmly convinced I held the record for the most items crammed into a single room.  I should have called Guinness Book of Records.

My parents and sister were gracious enough to haul all my worldly possessions from North Carolina and help me set up my apartment. Everything was going very smoothly until Tuesday afternoon.  That’s the day I moved the remaining contents of my dorm to my new place.  When I began unpacking all my “stuff”, I began to get really frustrated and overwhelmed.  The more I unpacked, the more stuff I seemed to have.  My room resembled a verse from the children’s song, “Old MacDonald”:  Here a box, there a box, everywhere a box, box!!

My mom was sitting at a safe distance across the room watching my frustration level mount as I unpacked each box.  Finally, just before I reached critical melt-down, she came to my rescue and helped me sort through all those boxes.  I remember saying to her, “Look at all this stuff!”  I couldn’t concentrate on the task at hand nor could I enjoy the fact that I was moving into a new place because all the boxes and the “stuff” they contained weighed me down.  Just thinking about unpacking their contents robbed me of the joy of moving into a new home.

The writer of Hebrews hit the bull’s-eye when he warned his readers about the dangers of becoming entangled and ensnared by all the cares of this world.  He knew how easy it is for the Christian to become side-tracked from the daily walk with God.  He fully understood how the “stuff” of life—its cares, its worries, its challenges, its trials, and all the alluring things it offers—can serve as a stumbling block and a hindrance to those who follow Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews 12:1, the writer makes the following observation: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  Notice the four distinct things addressed in this passage: 

·        First, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, those who have finished the race and are now with God.  They serve as examples to us that the race can be completed and their lives inspire us to stay on course.

·        Second, the writer admonishes us to cast aside anything and everything that hinders us from running the race God intends for us to run.  This passage tells us plainly that there are things in life that hinder and entangle us. 

·        Third, we all have a race to run.  God has determined our race and he also knows we can finish it!  According to his word, he will not place on us more than we can carry so we know the race is doable. 

·        Fourth, we must run this race with perseverance, determining daily to see it through to the end.  This means we must throw off all the excess baggage that would prevent us from being at our best at all times.

I learned much from that move.  I had way too much stuff and I had to take a hard look at what I really needed in order live on a daily basis.  My Christian walk must be the same as well.  I must look to see what kind of “stuff” is keeping me from being all that God would have me to be and I must send it to the trash heap and determine not to accumulate more “stuff” in my life.  There can be very little room for God in my life if I continually fill it with “stuff”.  Instead, I must empty my life of everything that prevents God from filling it completely.  What kind of “stuff” do you have in your life today?