You know how, when you are packing up to move, you end up just chucking things in boxes at the very end?

Every time we’ve moved (and we have moved our fair share of times!), I start out with the best of intentions. Things are properly sorted into their respective boxes and labeled. But as the hour to load the truck draws nearer, I start cramming the random leftovers into whatever box, bin, or tote happens to be nearby.

Because there’s always a pile of random stuff that we just don’t know what to do with.

And in every instance, those final random things are the ones that sink my spirits when I go to unpack. 

For the last few months, we have been really challenging ourselves as a family to part with all of the random clutter that seems to fill the corners of our home. We’re finding it in drawers, tucked away under beds, and (believe it or not!) in boxes that have remained untouched since we moved into this house years ago.

I have to ask myself why I have a shoebox full of paperclips. Whether we really need to own multiple screwdrivers. Why we keep moving bins of scrap paper. If it is necessary to keep every broken toy that cannot be fixed.

The truth is, simplifying the home can be pretty complex, can’t it?

It forces us to face our fears – like a paperclip emergency in which we’d instantly regret not owning a shoebox full. And we see our disappointments laid out in front of us – money we spent on things only to have them broken or eaten by the dog.

Jesus gives us some straightforward advice when it comes to considering our stuff.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:21 NIV

Friends, there really isn’t any shortcut around it. When we gather things – even the little trinkets – to fill our homes and protect them, tend them, and move them regardless of their usefulness, we are storing up earthly treasure. And in this case, I’d guarantee that most of it is treasure we don’t even care about.

So why do we hold on?