Spiritual Hoarders

I can’t watch the promotional ads for the TLC show, Hoarders.

If you haven’t seen it, the program tells the stories of people who hoard possessions and trash to the point that they’re literally unable to function within their own homes

I can’t look.

It’s too sad.

That people can allow things to accumulate to the point that they become prisoners of their own trash is frightening to me and relentlessly tragic.

But, I suspect hoarding is a bigger problem than can be seen with the naked eye.

I suspect many of us are invisible hoarders.

Some of us live in homes that are immaculate and minimalist in regards to material possessions but we have a hoarding problem nonetheless.

Rather than accumulate junk, we hold on to things from the past – grudges, guilt, hurts, sins, unfulfilled dreams, regrets, pain, and disappointments.

Our closets are stuffed with things we won’t let go. We pile them around us on our beds at night and wake up before dawn feeling smothered and choked.

We’re afraid to open the doors to certain rooms in our souls for fear that what we’ve hoarded inside will come spilling out and crush us under the weight of what we will not send packing.

And we cannot ever have company!

We can’t allow anyone else in or they’ll see the mess we’ve allowed to pile up like old newspapers with headlines like “My Father Didn’t Come to My Soccer Games.” Or “I Had Sex Before Marriage and Will Feel Guilty Forever.” Or “My Youth Leader Ran Off with a College Girl so I’ll Never Trust a Church Leader Again.” Or “I’m Angry That God Let My Friend Die of Cancer.”

Stacks of papers listing all of our sins and disappointments. Piles of unopened letters from God. Telegrams and notes from people who have reached out and tried to visit us in our self-imposed prison that we’ve just let sit beneath the letter slot of our hearts.

Once in a while, we make a start at cleaning out but it just seems like too big a job and letting go seems so frightening. What if we let go of that one thing that is actually holding us together? What if we clean it all out and all we have left is emptiness.

I understand.

In my read through the Bible in a year journey, I just finished rereading the story of Joseph. Every time I reach the part where Joseph easily forgives his brothers, I marvel at the lightness of Joseph’s soul.

He was wronged in so many ways. He lost years of his life because of the choices, jealousies, and plain meanness of others. He was once a loved and favorite son but he spent precious years as a prisoner, a servant, a slave, forgotten and cut off from everything and everyone he loved.

But when God brought him to a place of power and favor, he didn’t rise clutching the wrongs of the past. He rose with great lightness.

The brothers who betrayed him and sold him into slavery, these are the ones weighed down. It’s interesting that they made several journeys back and forth between Egypt and the Promised Land, carrying great sacks each time until they ask and receive their brother’s forgiveness at last.

Joseph just let it all go.

And now, he is one of the cloud of witnesses who cheer each of us on in our race to glory.

He is one of those who lived here, loved here, and knows the baggage that can accumulate over a lifetime of hurts and dashed hopes.

And he calls to us from the stands – “Let it go! If you let it go, you will run faster, freer, and with greater joy. Let it go! When you reach these stands, you’ll wish you’d run lighter the whole way.”

Well, that’s my paraphrase, anyway, of Hebrews 12:1- 2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

When you see those promotional ads for Hoarder, don’t you just want to help those poor people ditch all that useless junk and free themselves from their own piles?

Turn that desire on your own house – your inner being – and let it all go. Hoard no grudge, no guilt, no bitterness or pain. Release all unmet needs, disappointments, and broken dreams.

Open the doors, the windows, the skylights, and even the bulkhead. Let the light of Jesus fill you with light. Live light. Travel light. Love the light.