Garbage Collection by Deon Crafford

Philippians 3:7-8 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Just about all of us are born with a part of our DNA devoted to collection. Most people will recall that how as kids we were all at some or other time obsessed with collecting things – as diverse as bottle tops, stickers, dolls, stamps (yes, old people will remember), coins, stones, miniature cars and the like. Collecting stays with us, it’s implanted in us. When I cleaned out my late father’s workshop after he passed, I was dumbfounded by all the duplicate tools he had gathered over the years. I remember his defence then, saying “what if one breaks, then I have another”. Only recently I realised that I have five sets of golf irons stuck away in different places, even though I only ever use one. Maybe it also comes from one’s background of not growing up in abundance. You quickly realised then that discarding anything was not very clever. And when one was finally forced by circumstance to the point of decluttering, within days the need arose for something you discarded. What utter frustration, and probably sufficiently so to keep us hoarding?

Paul sees through this obsession with collection. He is able to discount all his collections (titles, affirmations, qualifications, status etc.) in order to create more space for being filled in with Christ. Paul lets go of what he regards as rubbish, so as to lay claim to the unsurpassed glory and goodness in knowing Jesus Christ intimately. He has no Spiritual poverty which causes him to cling to things in order to feel resourced. The constant inpouring of the Holy Spirit, replaces the angst of need. And yes, this again sounds such an incredibly abstract thing in a world where recognition is driven by one’s collections, but therein lies the wonder of our faith – that knowing Christ creates an abundance that forever trumps material shortfall. We are indeed more than the lilies of the field, as Jesus so clearly pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount.

Time tends to devalue things, unless you regard vintage as a measure. Even supposedly good wine turns to bitter vinegar after too many years of storage. But think of it, when you declutter, you regard things of much lesser value than what they had when you first collected or stored them. Paul knows that Christ is timeless and that He supercedes all of what once had value, but soon will be nothing more than clutter as I seek meaning from my life. We’d do well to heed Paul’s counsel and do a proper valuation of what I spend so much time on pursuing, whilst neglecting the ever increasing value of my direct relationship with Christ.

Love to all