stuff

I started months before we left listing stuff on trademe, dropping laden bags into opp shops and offloading at clothing swaps. You'd think after only living in our new house for a year we wouldn't have much junk but the reality is that we never sorted when we moved so brought it all over from the last house. 10 years worth of collecting. Collecting stuff. Stuff. 

So much stuff. It is amazing how it clutters our lives, our minds, and the constant need for more stuff, crowds our hearts. 

So the brief was that the only things going in that shipping container that would store our belongings for the next few years were things we really loved. 

But as we jammed shut the door on that container for the last time before leaving and taking only a suitcase of clothes each for our adventure, I remember sitting in the plane and saying to Marcus,

"you know what, If that container caught fire and all our stuff got burnt up. I don't think I would miss any of it." 

Everything that was truly important to me was on that plane or waving us off at the airport.  People I thought is what is important, not stuff.

And it was freeing. Arriving in a new land, not bogged down by stuff but being able to move into a furnished rental with just our suitcase of clothes each our only belongings. It felt so good, uncluttered and because there was no need to buy anything for this rental, I didn't. 

And it helped me too, keep focus on what was important. When you see poverty like you do here and people with what seems like NOTHING,  my first response as a westerner was to want to go out and buy them stuff. Because isn't that what is drilled into us, the more stuff you have, the happier you are?

But in general these people are happy.  They have so little but I knew that more stuff wasn't the answer.  It would only complicate life. People, knowledge, love, food, health, shelter. a job, These things are Important. Pretty stuff- not so much. 

That was 5 months ago. 

In a few weeks we will be moving into a new rental that is not furnished.  The house is  perfect for our families needs and the lure of a long term lease meaning we wouldn't have to move again was too appealing to be put off by the small little fact that we would need to furnish it. A whole house from scratch.

Oh how this idea excited me.  It meant shopping and setting up house.  This last week I couldn't drop the kids off at school fast enough so I could carry on driving into the city to check out home-ware shops. I have written lists, and because things are so much cheaper here than in NZ it made more sense to buy things new that we had sold at home and would need on our return.  We have brought a new washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, 6 new beds and all the bedding, a whole kitchen, dining table and chairs, I have been in a frenzy.  It started off so much fun but now as I start to pack everything up to move I realise it is going to take more than one trailer load to move us across town.

And the heaviness on me, the clutter that stuff brings has been weighing me down. 

What saddens me though is how quickly stuff consumes my time, energy and absorbs my thoughts and love.   While I could have been reading the Bible or playing with the kids, I've been on the internet searching second hand couches. Leather or fabric? my one big question going around and around in my head for days as if my choice affected the election result. 

Kinda longing to be back to just that one suitcase each.

Matthew 6:19 -24 Couldn't be a more appropriate verse for me at the moment to remind me that stuff is not what brings happiness and to not be a slave to it.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…  “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:19-21, 24 NIV)