A couple of months ago I read The 100 Thing Challenge: How I got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul by Dave Bruno. Dave lived for a year with less than 100 personal items. He is married and has kids so he didn’t count shared goods like the kitchen table and he lumped “socks” and counted them as one of his hundred things.
Ironically, the part that has stayed with me is not the number of shirts he had or what he did for fun during that year. No. It was his pen. Yes, you read that right. His pen. Not his penS, said with an exaggerated “S” to be sure you’ve got the extremeness of it. He lived for a full year with one pen. Would you like to know how many pens I have? Neither would I! But, I’m kind of a pen hound. As long as I over-collect on a small thing, it’s OK. Right?! Right? I can’t hear you over those crickets chirping.
Enter Jen Hatmaker’s chapter three stage left: Possessions. (I’ve already looked at ‘food’ here and ‘clothing’ here). Her plan was to get rid of seven things each day for a grand total of 210 items. Which sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Jen thought so too. It ended up being a drop in the bucket. Even by the end, after giving away far more, there they had more to move on.
I don’t think possessions are the problem. It’s more a matter of who is possessing whom. Do I own something, or does it own me? Am I blessed to be a blessing or am I blessed to be a socially-appropriate-hoarder (a phrase you won’t find in the Bible because, well, it’s not Biblical!).
If Jen entered stage left, Haggai enters stage right. He’s visiting the Israelites who have finally returned home after 70 years in captivity. And by “home” I mean to a destroyed city, temple, and long-lost way of life. They set about to rebuild with an enthusiasm that would impress anyone (as did I after reading The 100 Thing Challenge). In a Maslow’s Hierarchy of safety way of deciding what to do first, they rebuilt the city wall. Next they turned to their houses. Not a bad choice. Except that they kind of stalled out and didn’t get to work on rebuilding the temple.
I keep hoping that this scene will play out in flannel graphs across the world:
“Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Is it time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’
“Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.'”
Can’t you just picture this reenacted on a flannel graph? Their houses look a little bit like Elvis’ house. At least in my mind. I know that panelling circa BC looks different than circa 70s US, but the point is the same. WHY ARE YOU GATHERING PENS. This is not why I have you here! You were made for so much more, but you settle for … pens. We, like the Israelites, have gotten distracted. We started off well (the city wall IS done), but somehow we have stalled out.
We all need a Haggai to show up and gently say: GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. Nice paneling, by the way, but do not stop here!
In response to Jen’s chapter I’ve decided to clean out seven drawers. I started with, you guessed it, my office supply drawer. How about you? Are there seven things you can share or give away as a gesture that, you too, have heard Haggai?
The Messy Middle 
I just recently received a package with 12 multicolored Pilot G-2 Click Pens (the best pens in the world). I’m really not sure what to do with this blog and that fact. I’ve set aside time tonight to do another round of packing/de-cluttering…I’ll let you know what I decide. 🙂
If you keep them, I get it. Even though I cleaned out my office supply drawer, I mostly got rid of the dead ones and realized I do not need to buy another pen for years (if ever).
Great post. I’m grateful to know Dave (and his wife) iRL and to have the challenge they present in how they live as something I encounter daily…though I’m nowhere close to thinking about undertaking it myself. And I share your pen issues – although I really only use one type…that unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore! All the rest I buy trying to replace it! ha! 🙂
Leese, what a wonderfully small world we live in!
A few weeks ago a friend made the comment that she realized that she was “not living in every room in her house.” Instead she had become conditioned through prior life circumstances to live mainly in her bedroom, with a little time spent in the kitchen. The family room, living room, dining room, and remaining three bedrooms remained off limits to her in her mind. She didn’t even consider going into the garage and making it her own! One of her goals for the year has been to start living in every room of her house, making it her home again. Taking it back from the memories and ghosts of an angry, violent past life.
That conversation with her made a huge impact in my life, as it revealed to me that I have not been living in all of my house either. I have given up possession of so much of it to hurtful memories or just to stuff that I never wanted and/or don’t need. I have started shedding my HOME of that stuff … it is WONDERFUL to rid my house of things and get my home back.
It is amazing to me, as I look around my environment (literal and figurative) how much clutter there is of things that were just dumped in my life. They are not necessarily things that I wanted or chose, but rather just things that someone else dumped off and walked away from. It is a wonder that there is any room to live at all. Maybe that is the point — you can only exist in a world of clutter, of things … you cannot really LIVE.
This post will go up on my “inspiration” bulletin board … to remind me to continue shedding my life of unnecessary and unwanted things. Today the seven things to get rid of will be electronics … old printers and computer components in storage that have not been used in years and will never be used again in this home.
My pens? Oh, don’t touch my pen collection. ESPECIALLY not the Pilot G-2 .38 ultra fines!
Thanks for the post … I so enjoy your writing.
Loriorli, what an interesting insight! My living room doesn’t have much light so I don’t find that I am in here that often during the day (when the sun is out). A friend recently moved back to the US for a few months and in cleaning out their apartment was horrified to find that they had something like 11 bags of trash. TRASH. Not things that others could use. It’s made me wonder how much really in my home is not recyclable. Lots to think on, eh?!
Amy – having lived in the same house for 19 years we are in the midst of purging, horrified by the stuff in our basement and the heaviness of sorting through – to toss or give or keep, garage sales and dumpsters and missions. But it’s on its way – and with it all the shackles of possession which you have so beautifully brought to the light – once again hitting the mark. (Just realized the topic of my week’s blog, thank you!)
Sue, so glad to be of help! Wink! I’ll stop by your blog later 🙂 Amy
Interesting concept…the older I get the less stuff I want, but I must have a drawer full of pens!
I recommend The Boomer Burden:Dealing with your Parents’ Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff by Julie Hall. We purchased it for each of our kids, but we’re taking the advice seriously and attempting to make their job easier . . . hopefully in the FAR distant future!
Thanks Nita, I love a good resource! Amy p.s. hope graduation was great!
I liked your line about possessions owning us instead of the other way around. I think it’s ultimately a heart issue – and this Haggai passage shows that well. It’s where our focus and our joy is – is it on the things of God or on our own wealth and possessions? Possessions can be great gifts from God when we keep him in mind, but they can too easily also become idols that keep us from him.
The possessions chapter was tough for me. I think with media, it’s easy for me to justify my way out of things, with possessions, I just have one person to blame for my hold on material objects, me.
The tough part is that it is SO easy for me to point to my kids and think, “Tsk, tsk, you have a closet of board games and millions of markers” or even my husband, “Do you really need all those clothes?” Too often I don’t see my stuff because I’m too busy silently tallying all of theirs.
This summer I’m going to implement Jen’s challenge of giving away seven things per day. I’m both excited and nervous just thinking about it. Maybe I should start with office supplies!
I hear you. When I was in the States in December and January, I helped my folks go through some things. SO easy to have opinion on their things! So hard to hold the same standards on my own!
this chapter was hard to read, but liberating in a sense. i’m ready. oh-so-ready to get rid of things. stuff. clutter fills my mental space and almost immobilizes me. living in a small home with a family of six. . . well, it doesn’t take much, either, to make it feel cluttered!
i’ve already started the purge. i’ll designate a time frame, but for now these small steps are making me feel a bit more in control. creating more space. both mentally and physically.
i like your idea of starting with drawers. sometimes it’s the smaller things that help provide the momentum toward bigger projects. i’m really thinking on that, especially as i help my children grasp this concept and implement it in their own “space.”
great thoughts!
steph
Drawers seemed more doable for me. So far I’ve done two. I’ll do one more this evening and maybe one tomorrow.
I love Amy’s comment on this that she is so busy tallying other people that she doesn’t notice her own stuff. SO me, with lots of things, not just possessions! We recently moved and so I was kind of forced to go through this purging process and I was really grossed out at why we had SO MUCH STUFF. Before we moved I would have said we lived on little and didn’t have too much, but after I was appalled at all the things we had and never used.
Love the way you referenced scripture to tie in, it made me see it all in a different light!
Other things are much easier for me to see too! I live in a community where we live our lives in front of each other and one of the things that gets commented on the most is how much stuff so-and-so has. so easy to be judgmental!
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