Storage And Stuff

Last weekend I heard a rich San Diego Self -Storage owner talking about the Self-Storage business.

People put their stuff in storage because they don’t want to deal with sifting through it if a relative dies, or in-between moves or they just don’t have room for everything. He paused.

Five years later they come back and when they do go through it they usually give over 90% away. In the meantime I get a steady check every month. They end up paying 5 times for all the stuff over it’s value by the time it’s been in storage that long.

The self-storage industry is doing better than real –estate. It’s booming. Especially now with people downsizing, baby boomers are the focus. They said in this growing billion dollar industry every person, adult and child in America has enough space to store7ftby7 cubic ft of their goods.

And that’s not good. Enough is enough, as my German aunt said frequently visiting our great country. So I was reading in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15 pieced and paraphrased, I mean not that other men be eased and you burdened, but at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, and vice verse…it’s written, ‘he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack.’ Why do we need so much?

I gasped when I watched 9 cars, trucks and uhauls move my stuff- a single woman’s household- to the next home I moved into. Ten years after entering that house with a twin bed room set, I left with a house and garage full. Much I had scummed from garage sales and consignment shops. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, I love to quote. But how much do I need?

I think I’ll share this info with a single friend I know who has had a storage unit at least five years. Last time I saw it, we had to climb an upside down furniture shop and hardware store combined to find something. If we ever found it. One of these days, he says while the trillionaire gloats.

And as careful as we are as humans not to part with all this physical stuff and keep it ‘just in case’, how careful are we to keep the word of God stored in our heart, that we avoid coveting, wanting all the stuff? Jesus told the Parable of the Rich Man who built barns to store his crops and sit back for an easy life. The Message continues the thought in Luke 12:19-22:

The man spoke to himself. Self you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life.
Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it? That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.

How can we begin parting with some of our stuff? Maybe just a cluttered drawer at our desk or work, a closet filled with clothes we use half of, one room at a time—one garage or self storage unit! We can make it a goal to give away stuff that would bring help to another.

Make it a goal to be rich toward God today. As he Master said, Beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not lie in the abundance of things he possesses. Luke 12:15