I recently decided to clean out my cell phone. I have used it to take numerous photos over
the last couple years, saved many documents, taken notes, etc. I even had a whole file devoted to the 2018 Indiana
Annual Conference filled with relevant material.
Most of this stuff doesn’t mean anything to me now, I don’t
really need it, and if it had disappeared suddenly a week ago I wouldn’t have
noticed. Yet, as unimportant as my phone
clutter may be, I have a hard time pushing the “delete” button and getting rid
of it for good. What if I accidentally
delete something important? Some of
those photos may turn out to have historical value! And besides, it’s not like they’re taking up
space in my house or office.
So, instead of deleting them, I found an old thumb drive,
and simply transferred them over so I can throw them into a corner and forget
about them. I now rest easy in the
knowledge that they’re still around if needed, even though I probably will
never need or see them again.
Human beings have a natural tendency to view losses as far
more significant than gains. If you find
twenty dollars you’re naturally happy.
But if, soon after this, you have a five dollar bill fly out the window
and disappear, your regret for losing the five dollars completely overshadows
the joy you should have at being fifteen dollars to the good. In Psychology and Economics this is called
“loss aversion,” and it is a verifiable part of our human wiring. It may make sense from a survival point of
view, but in the modern world it can lead to a host of problems including
spiritual and physical hording.
Our fear of losing can get us into trouble because there are
things in our lives we ought to lose; things that we cling to unnecessarily.
We walk around with anger, carry grudges, focus on our
failures, are bitter over past disappointments, and feel anguish over our own
shortcomings. Maybe it wouldn’t be such
a bad thing to lose a few of those things after all! Maybe, in fact, we need to constantly remind
ourselves of what really is important, and what doesn’t matter in the end. Maybe
we should be a little quicker to push the “delete” button in our lives.
There’s a story of a man who lost all his investments and
money in the stock market crash of 1929.
Soon afterward his pastor paid a visit, finding the investor slumped in
his parlor obviously depressed.
“I’ve lost everything,” he said to the clergy. “Everything.”
The pastor replied:
“I’m sorry you wife has died.”
“She’s not dead,” said the investor. “She’s as devoted and loving as ever.”
“Well then I’m sorry something has happened to your
children.”
“No, they’re fine.
They’re playing in the other room.”
“And your friends have all abandoned you?”
“I still have good friends who are very supportive.”
The pastor concluded with this: “You haven’t lost everything. You’ve only lost the least important part of
your life. The important things are
still there. Embrace them.”
We can accumulate so much junk in our lives that the good
stuff gets buried. Periodically we need
to clean things up. Like my cell phone’s
internal storage, we need to sort things out before we become overloaded with
rubbish. And in this process we must
inevitably lose some of the things we cling to.
The Bible challenges us to do this.
As Colossians 3:8 NRSV puts it: “But
now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and
abusive language from your mouth.”
The least important parts of our lives can interfere with
the most important parts. Let’s take a
moment to consider what really matters. The
important things are definitely worth keeping, but this summer might be a good
time to lose some of the clutter.
David
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