Five years ago, we downsized after 24 years of living in the same house to one half the size.  It was a time of purging – release – letting go and giving up.  I believe I had about five garage sales that year.  Whatever we didn’t sell, we donated to the local thrift stores and finally hired a truck to pick up the things that we couldn’t get rid of any other way.  

My husband had crates of stored art work and equipment along with many items he just couldn’t let go of.  He has a sentimental heart and loves to hang onto things that have a personal memory.  I’m more of an organizer and tend to toss without thinking, even though I found it difficult to give up thirty years of costumes from my children’s theatre.

To get to my point of this post today.  Since we moved in our little 1875 farm house, we’ve been to many garage sales – rummage sales – liquidation & downsizing sales and yard sales.  No matter what you call it, it comes down to getting rid of things we no longer need to carry as excess baggage.  Are you toting an extra load today?  I’m not talking about physical things, but more about the emotional heaviness we place on ourselves.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just simply snap our fingers and get rid of it?  Our burdens can lead to so many more difficult problems – like depression, anger, anxiety, fear, loss, grief.  Compounded all these elements add a lot of weight to the already stifling encumbrance.  It’s really much easier than snapping your fingers.  Jesus invites us to cast our burdens on Him.  He will carry them for us.  Sounds like a pretty easy way out.  When we create the mess, we often want to fix it ourselves.  In other words, we get in the way of His doing what He does best.  We need to let Him.

So, we continue to collect old stuff – nostalgic and inspirational things from another time.  It’s not like we need any of it.  In fact our backyard sometimes looks like an ongoing yard sale. These items give us interesting things to look at while we’re outdoors.  They are a collection of art objects in a way and often fodder for a painting or two.  Sometimes we need to clean up the clutter though and get rid of some of those things that occupy so much of our time and effort.  

Today is Garage Sale Day. The weather is perfect for it.  There’s really nothing I’m in great need of, but the pull of a garage sale is always there for me.  I usually find something to add to the mess. When it becomes to overwhelming, I ask for help.