DE-JUNK THE WALLET

Sometime back, I was invited to preach in a camp meeting and I preached from the sermon title: THE WALLET-LIKE HEART. It was an inspiration God gave me using the very things about my life. I took out my wallet and you cannot believe what was there. Please do me a favor, get some time, and unpack your wallet or your daily handbag. You will be shocked by the things you carry everyday everywhere regardless of their usefulness. Your wallet or handbag represents your home, your workplace, your mind, and thought-pattern.  It is amazing how much stuff we collect day by day as we walk in this life. It is the same thing in our homes; in every corner of every room, there are random objects – articles of all kinds, small things, big things, fun things, useful things, junk things – that excite us or sometimes create stress for us.

Most African and Asian local markets with second-hand items are a result of the constant discipline the civic people exercise every season. The discipline is known as DE-JUNKING. Now what is “De-Junking”? It is clearing a room or space by disposing off clutter and unwanted possessions. Every year or at least upon any occasion of moving, the elites and affluent of society DE-JUNK, their homes, and offices, by disposing off, books, clothes, domestic appliances, office items etc. and that is what gives birth to our second-hand stuff markets.

Our untidy rooms, stuffed closets, bags, wallets and piled up desks are symbolic to our real physical, mental and spiritual lives. The stuff you carry in your wallet or handbag every day, the stuff in your home or office etc. is very connected to your productivity. We are so attached to this stuff and actually identified by it. It is on us, in us and around us, and we have to take back our control of it, because if we do not, it consciously or subconsciously takes control of us. Religious leaders, doctors, psychologists, scientists and 40 other kinds of “improvers” will all tell you the same thing. When you get the junk out of your life, everything improves – mentally, physically and emotionally.

However, deciding whether something is junk is purely a subjective decision. Someone’s prized possession is another person’s junk. Something that means a great deal to someone else can mean absolutely nothing to you. So de-junking your life means getting rid of things you think of as junk. You are the one who must define what is junk. That decision depends solely on your brain and worldview.

Now let me ask you, what are the things in your WALLET-LIKE LIFE that you need to de-junk? Let me help you categorize a few:

• Mix-up stuff: anything in your life that is not clear. That is some sort of confusion is just but clutter. Stuff might look harmlessly lying around, but if you are not using 50% of the things, you own in your life, then, it is eating into 50% of your space. If you don’t know your position wherever you are, be it a job or a relationship, whether you are married or not, in a relationship alone or with them, then get to know that, that is some sort of mixed up rubbish with good and bad items that needs to be sorted. If your relationship status is: it is complicated, friends with benefits, then believe me its trash. What I am trying to tell you is that lack of direction and directedness in life is harmful stuff.
• People Stuff: there are three kinds of people in almost everyone’s life. And these are: Family, Friends, and Foes. I have to tell you that depending on the quality of space you need and what you need to use that space for, each of the three can be but just junk circumstantially. Now look into your house should every individual be under that same roof? Look at your friends be honest, are they all worth keeping? How useful are they and when and where? Help me understand whether your enemies are worth your attention and efforts. Why don’t you just cut the crap and free your space? Why keep your mind focused and always carrying the baggage of haters? Scroll your phone book right now tell me why it is full and who exactly is in that phonebook. Do you really need those people, okay do they need you?
• MIND STUFF: We gain much of our identity and reputation from the stuff we surround ourselves. It is why most of us do not like inviting people back to our houses until we know them well – it is too private, too revealing. Don Aslett calls it our ‘visual autobiography’.
  

  “People treat you differently if you’re drowning in clutter. If they cannot sit on the back seat of your car because it is full of junk, or you are constantly borrowing pens/stamps/tissues, etc. because you cannot find them in your bag, they read you as disorganized, undisciplined and sloppy. The first good reason to de-junk is because people will treat you better.”

Therefore, thus says the LORD in Jeremiah 15:19-20 (NAS)

“If you return, then I will restore you– Before Me you will stand; And if you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them. Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you,” declares the LORD.

I T WHITE

@THINK & BECOME (Inspirational Link)

iTiS Well of Worship Ministries