On being a hoarder

I'll confess to being a bit of a hoarder - especially when it comes to books and papers.  This characteristic has pros and cons (although only fellow hoarders will agree with the pros).

But inevitably the need for some clear flat space (the floor, the desk) brings me to the point of clearing out.  In recent years while not wholeheartedly endorsing the principle, I have moved closer to the idea that if I haven't used/opened/looked at something for a decade, I'm unlikely to ever do so, so dispose of it.

So it was in this spirit that I did some serious clearing out after Christmas, but not without some associated emotion.  Take, for example, a set of teaching transparencies for use with an overhead projector.  I know we moved to PowerPoint ten years ago and I haven't used them since.  I acknowledge that all the notes I had so carefully written on the frames surrounding the slides I have used so many times that they are committed to memory.  I know that it is unlikely I will ever use an overhead projector again (thankfully).  But still there was the emotional tugging of history.  The people who attended some of those early seminars, the places I went, the lives that were helped...

Which led me to thinking about what God has to say on the subject.  I'm not talking about 'treasures on earth' but more of the balance between past and future.  Paul writes of 'Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead... [Philippians 3:13, NIV].  But in balance we know too that God 'will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.' [Hebrews 6:10, NIV]. And the Bible frequently tells God's followers to use a tangible item as a memory jogger to recall his goodness in the past.  So I've thrown out the slides, and a whole host of other stuff, but kept a handful of other items so that when I do look at them - this year, next year or in a decade's time, I might be reminded of God's work in various ways.