Stuff, Stuff, and More Stuff

        Stuff, stuff, and more stuff!  I've been involved with a number of churches over the years who have held thrift sales as fund-raisers.  All of them have been thrift sales exploding with stuff!  Stuff, stuff, and more stuff! 

        Following the sales, there often was a bunch of stuff left over!  All that leftover stuff was dispersed to other organizations in order to give away or sell. Now they’ve got stuff!  Stuff, stuff, and more stuff!

        Over the course of the years I have moved several times.  Each time I moved I tried to reduce my amount of stuff. You know what’s amazing?  I still have stuff.

        How about you? Do you still have stuff?  Isn’t it amazing all that stuff we have?  Stuff, stuff, and more stuff!

        I wrote this originally back in October of 1999. We had stuff, stuff, and more stuff then and we have stuff, stuff, and more stuff now. There is a new personality on the scene recently.  Marie Kondo.  She is a Japanese organizing consultant and author who emphasizes our emotional connections to our stuff – Keep only that which "sparks joy."  She may be right. It's one more potential solution to our cultural problem with stuff, stuff, and more stuff. I once read somewhere that 70% of our economy is based on our consumption of stuff.

         “Thrift sale" is an odd term.  When I think of “thrift” I think of economic management, frugality.  If I’m “thrifty,” I pinch pennies. I’m careful what I buy.  I try to save because I don’t think I have all that much.  I live out of scarcity.  But if that were truly the case, wouldn’t I have managed my stuff better and not let so much stuff accumulate?  Stuff, stuff, and more stuff!  Maybe these "thrift" sales would be better called “Awholelottastuff” sales.

        Why do we have “thrift” sales?  Might it be because we’re not really all that thrifty in the first place?  Why else would we end up with so much stuff?

        Of course, there are those of us who are thrifty.  We’re the ones who go to the thrift sales to buy.  We’re out there looking for a bargain because we don’t want to have to pay too much for anything.  In fact, it’s a source of pride when we can show people something and tell how great a deal we got on it.

        Did you know another meaning for “thrift” comes from the verb “thrive”?  That means “Thrift” can be the condition of thriving.  It can be a state of prosperity and vigorous growth. Thinking this way, maybe a "thrifty" life could be defined as an abundant life.

        I like that. What might my state of mind be if I lived from a perspective of thankfulness for the prosperity of my blessings?  There is much for which I am grateful. I have been blessed! 

        Too often we forget the abundance of our blessings and think we need to live out of this sense of scarcity.  We won’t make ends meet, so God gets the short end of the deal while we go have our Sunday brunch.

        Stuff stuff and more stuff!  We have it!  Too much of it! But do you know what we have even more of than all that stuff?  The love of Christ!  The huge floodgates (more than any mere closet) are open on Christ’s love for us and that stuff is the best stuff of all.  And we’re drowning in it!  Knowing that, how can we help but be “thrifty” -- “thriving” -- as we give out of the prosperity of our blessings?