06/11/11 FROM CLUTTER TO CATASTROPHE

06/11/11 FROM CLUTTER TO CATASTROPHE
(taken from my Promiselander's Musings)

A Sad Subculture
I have watched programs, in shocked bewilderment, about hoarders. These are not people who hoard food. These are people who hoard clutter, trash, garbage or animals and all the filth that goes with them. They have allowed the accumulation of these things, often times useless trash, to take over their lives.

Held Captive By Their Desires
I watch in horror as people have allowed accumulation of trash and filth to overtake their house and drive their families away from them. Garbage collects on the floor and vermin overrun the house. The garbage has filled all the rooms of the house and there is no place to cook, eat, sleep, visit, relax, or even bathe. People are willing to lose friends, family, personal dignity and health as they cling to their trash. Not only have I seen houses that were floor to ceiling with debris, I have seen someone who bought another house to live in because their trash had totally taken over their house. Still, they accumulate junk and garbage in their new home, until their new house becomes another dump site.

Moving From Value To Tragedy
It is asserted that these people have psychological problems. I am not focusing on that question at this time. I am simply pointing out that people, for whatever reasons, allow their orderly, clean, productive, attractive lives to become chaotic, filthy, useless and abhorrent when they allow stuff to enter and remain in their lives, to the detriment of their own value, their relationships with friends and loved ones and their useful place in society.

An Unintended End
People do not intend to become useless pigs. It does not happen overnight. It is the result of neglect, laziness and misguided values, which eventuates in deliberate choices to reject reason.

The Greater Tragedy
Most of us are appalled when we see such behavior. However, some of the same people who are disgusted with such aberrant behavior are collectors of spiritual trash and garbage. These people have neglected their own relationship with God and allowed the accumulation of spiritual debris to overtake their relationship with God.

Look And Learn
Just like the people on these "Hoarding" programs, most people are unaware of their own spiritually aberrant condition. At some time in the past, some people who have confessed and repented of their sins, and placed their faith in the saving work of Christ, have slowly allowed the worthless things of this world to accumulate and take over their lives. The things of the world are crowding out the good things of God. Yet, they will not hear, they will not see, and therefore they are being swept away in a sea of emptiness.

Take Charge

Take time to evaluate your life. Take time to let God speak to you. Take time to be holy.

Launch Out and Hold Fast,
Pastor David L. Gould