Hold on loosely

In May I packed up all my belongings that I'd stuffed into a small bedroom and living room with the help of my parents before my first year of seminary. I'm really not sure how we made it all fit...I have too much stuff. I've always been somewhat of a sentimentalist, I have a hard time parting with things. Without the help of my folks to pack up stuff, and doing most of the packing over a weekend, convinced me that it was time to reduce.

"At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth." Mark 10:22

In the past two weeks I've parted with two things- giving them as gifts to friends. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that they were things that I "needed" (or even for that matter, wanted). But I let them go. Which is kind of big for me. And rather than throwing them away, I gave them to people I thought might actually have some use for them. After I gave the second item away, I realized that I'd accidentally come up with a way to reduce my possessions. So, I think I'll start a practice, of giving at least one thing away a week for the foreseeable future. In doing this, I hope to lessen the grip that possessing things has on me, and hope to become slower to consider things as being "mine."

Just something to think about.