Homespun - By Jim Langham - Sorting the valuable from the priceless Recently I’ve spent some time helping a friend who is downsizing for a possible move. In the process, I found myself reliving a similar situation a year ago when I was sorting through things in the old home place as we prepared to sell my parents’ house.
My heart is not that far removed from tough decisions concerning whether or not to dispense of a piece of wallpaper that I had saved from my childhood home, the major hesitation to throw away grade school papers (even those that were “less than perfect”) and boxes of newspaper clippings that represented special occasions and events.
And the task is not over. Many of the indecisive relics were boxed and are currently occupying wall to wall storage space in a unit that is helping a local business maintain its status.
I was admittedly no help to our friend in giving advice about saving or throwing away school awards, pictures from proms, programs from school events, tickets from special sports events and letters and notes reflecting the joys and pains of the adolescent years.
For most of my life, I have prided myself in not tossing anything that has personal handwriting. If someone took the time to write a personal message “longhand,” then I have saved it – letters from church camp, high school notes, letters received in the mail that have been totally hand written, and special cards with special notes.
When I developed that inner sense of tribute to handwriting, no one ever told me how many such special documents I would receive in a lifetime, or that I would only have so much space for storage, or that as things accumulated, that space would not increase.
As I pondered the need for wave two of sorting out a storage unit, I borrowed a phrase from a musical when one of the characters was deciding some important decisions in his life.
“On the one hand,” he said. “But on the other hand,” he reflected. An entire scene of reflection followed with the continuation of the “one hand” and “other hand” theme. So there I was, trying to sort out a new philosophy of the need to downsize with the “one hand-other hand,” reasoning.
In the process, I realized deeply how much I remember everyday principles that were sown in my life by those whose relics surround me; seeds of faith have sustained us and are now evident in our children. I realized how much more influential the fruit of those seeds are than the things that were salvaged to represent them along the way.
In the process of sorting, our friend noted a beautiful picture of a loving Christ that is the centerpiece of faith in the family room. That, I learned, was thrown in with the purchase of a mirror at a sale. The mirror has long since been stored away, but the reminder of the eternal Christ has become focus of faith that overcomes.
“There,” I said to myself. “Those outstanding keepsakes of an eternal faith deserve consideration for keeping, if they are soul and heart inspiration.”
A close family member had solved the problem of saving clutter.
“If it is something that will still be of value 100 years from now, it’s important, save it.”
That included both things and relationship principles.
Then he would say, referring to Jesus’ words, “Don’t lay up treasures on earth, where they are corrupted and destroyed. Lay up treasures in heaven, where they are preserved and saved for eternal happiness.”
A piece of paper noting an eighth grade music award? It’s got to go sometime. But a picture of Jesus representing hope, comfort, and spiritual reflection – now the effects of that masterpiece will still be going on 100 years from now.