\u201cSave it for a rainy day.\u201d \u201cYou never know when you might need it.\u201d \u201cI hate to get rid of it.\u201d What is the \u201cIt\u201d in each of these statements? It is the excess I have in my life. The coffee can of nuts, bolts, and screws I might need one day. The extra pairs of pants in my closet that I haven\u2019t worn in months. The cooking utensils that overfill a drawer and two containers near the stove. In many homes in the United States, we have stuff\u2014excess\u2014more than we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We collect the extra stuff in our lives out of a sense of needing to feel comfortable and ready for any challenge, while also fearing scarcity. We sometimes purchase the excess out of a sense of \u201csaving money\u201d because the clothing is on clearance or the price on the grocery item is the best we have ever seen. We collect the spare parts and the mildly used parts out of a desire to be ready when something breaks. Yet, in all these purchases, we tend to lose track of the excess and at times, we find a pair of pants in the closet with the tags still on them or the grocery item is well past its \u201cBest Buy\u201d or expiration date before we decide to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus in sending out his disciples in Matthew 10, taught us about living with enough and trusting him with our needs. He said, \u201cTake no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your<\/em> journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food<\/em>\u201d (10:9-10). The excess would weigh them down and they could become more focused on maintaining their excess than trusting the Lord for their provisions. In the mid-20th<\/sup> Century there was a well-known evangelist named Harry Denman. He traveled the United States proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He owned one suit. The story is told of him preaching at a local church where the local dry cleaner attended. They offered to clean his suit while he was in the community. He told the owner he only had the one suit, so he would have to stay in his hotel room and rest. He lived a simple life, and he traveled light as he proclaimed the Gospel. Excess was not an issue for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this new year, one of the words guiding my life is the word, \u201cLess.\u201d This emphasis seeks to look at the excess in my life. This is not limited to my physical excesses, but also to my excesses in the way I spend my time (i.e. less time online). When I consider less, it will require I disturb some of my comfort to get rid of excess in my physical world and break habits of sitting online for no purpose. I will be invited to consider what is essential and what is unessential. I am not committing to a purge of everything I own, but of a commitment to have less stuff and more meaningful time in the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This emphasis on less is also a desire to become a better disciple of Jesus as I take my focus from stuff to be more focused on him. As John the Baptist said in John 3:30, \u201cHe [Jesus] must<\/em> become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.<\/em>\u201d How is God calling you to less? Do you own stuff that is unessential and creating stress in your life (i.e. trying to keep it organized and clean)? How will living a life with less stuff and more meaningful time help you build relationships, trust the Lord for what you need, and find a freedom from a scarcity mindset? Let\u2019s focus on less in this New Year, so Jesus can be more in our lives!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer: Lord, forgive me for having so much stuff. I want to be less focused on my stuff, so<\/strong> help me part with those things I no longer need. Help me find peace in my life as I spend less<\/strong> time in meaningless use of my time. I want you to be more and for me to be less. Thank you,<\/strong> Lord. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cSave it for a rainy day.\u201d \u201cYou never know when you might need it.\u201d \u201cI hate to get rid of it.\u201d What is the \u201cIt\u201d in each of these statements? It is the excess I have in my life. The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/livingtheadventure.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Blank1-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C4&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livingtheadventure.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}