Have you ever seen the shows on TV about hoarders? Season after TV season dedicated to aiding and assisting those living in unhealthy life situations. Season after season chock-full of men and women who have spent their days seeking “things” to fill a void they feel in their life. As their stories unfold there are consistent themes. Scarcity is one of those themes. They hold on to things out of fear that there won’t be enough.
Scarcity.
For the longest time I watched the show with pity for the characters on the show. “These poor people- buried in their things.” Burying their emotional pain underneath material possessions. Hoarders were a group of people that I could see the “plank in their eye” but could not see the “speck of sawdust” in my own.
I have an eye cream that I have had for MONTHS. I use it nearly every day – and most days 2x’s a day…whether is works or not! Wink! It has NOT run out. I started thinking. Wow. This is one way that God is blessing me by helping my eye cream last a very long time. Longer than average. Longer than makes mathematical sense.
In prayer one morning as I thanked God for his blessings, the never-ending eye cream came to mind. Wouldn’t you know that in those moments God used this thought about eye cream to bust wide open my own issues with a scarcity mentality.
Until that morning, I hadn’t been aware of my own scarcity mentality. I lived these thoughts that had been the background music to the movie of my life. “One day, his goodness toward us will end. One day, his blessings for us will run out. One day, all of this – material blessing, relational blessing, and health it will go away. It can’t last forever after all. Can it?” It was almost as if I believed that God’s storehouses could run out or that I could do something that would cause him to move on to the next family.
Scarcity. Based on a lie. The truth is, God’s goodness and blessings have no end. Not now. Not ever.
The “plank” of hoarding is more visible than my own struggle with God’s goodness toward me. The piles and piles are harder to hide than my heart’s aching question of “when will his blessings run dry?” As I started considering how I use view the “stuff” in my life it became more and more clear, I operate out of fear. This fear produces thoughts that are not based on truth. “What happens when this runs out?” Whether I am hoarding or holding on too long, at the end of the day, it is about the state of my heart and the truth I choose to believe.
God in his loving kindness showed me through a tube of “long-lasting” eye cream that I am not much different than the one who struggles with hoarding. We are both on a path of needing more of Jesus. Now that my “speck of sawdust” is clearer, can I challenge you this week to consider some questions?
What do you think about God’s goodness in your life? Do you operate out of mentality of abundance or of scarcity? What are you holding on to – whether physical piles, emotional scars or fear? Are you willing to let God invade the places in your heart that are hurting or are believing a false truth? Are you willing to let God remind you that his love and goodness will never run out?
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