Dust and Ashes

Late last week I was driving my 1989 Chev truck with its paint peeling and the odometer over 280,000 kms. A fellow about my age (50+) drove up beside me in a shiny new sporty convertible. In that moment I grumped a bit at God. For me, what that car represented was simply out of the question given my decision to go to Lesotho. And so I grumped a bit, and asked of God, "Why me? Why do I have to go? Why can't I stay here, earn more money, and enjoy more of the comforts and good things of life?"

That was Friday, and Wendy and I held our garage sale the next day. It was a bit of a bust. The things we had collected over the course of almost 30 years, which had meaning to us or which we found useful, were of little interest to others. They and the other things which we had been given or had saved for or sacrificed to be able to buy, were just used, second hand or trinkets, dust and ashes, to others.

After the garage sale, Wendy and I considered what we really had after 30 years. We had some used furniture, much of it no longer in 'style'; the essential stuff to run a kitchen - pots, pans, dishes; a collection of books, movies, and music; and other 'stuff'. 'Stuff' that we clung to, sometimes because of the memories associated with it, but most often because 'we might use it again some day'. Stuff that mostly just collected dust or took up space.

So the garage sale was a bust in terms of getting rid of things and making money. Most of the stuff remains, in the garage, awaiting a rendezvous with the thrift store or the dump. The garage sale was, however, a good reminder to me of what is important in life: relationships and doing my part to bring a little bit of heaven (a smile, a thank-you, an encouraging act) to the life of another. As the words on one of my trinkets reads, "The most precious things in life, ... aren't things."

So as I reflected on the guy in the sports car and the results of our garage sale, I thought of the words another guy once said, "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven. ... Real life is not measured by how much you own."

Lesotho - here I come.

(But aaghh, I still have to get rid of that 'stuff' ... )


~ Benno ~