“From Cluttering & Muttering to Simplicity & Generosity.”

Have you ever felt like you have a lot of clutter around your home, work, or maybe even your brain?

Does that clutter ever make you feel stressed, tired, or dissatisfied? 

One of the ministries that I really appreciate at Morning Star is our bi-annual rummage sale.   (BTW: the proceeds go to help support our numerous mission opportunities.) Each semester my family gets a chance to go through our home and evaluate our stuff.  It never surprises us to find that we have accumulated a lot more stuff.  Some of the stuff is an accumulation of our day-to-day living, some of it is the product/reward of hard work, and some of it is the gift of birthdays and anniversaries, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.   Some of our stuff is special and valuable to my family.  Some of it is disposable.  Some if it is destined for the church rummage sale.  

My children’s rooms are especially cluttered with stuff.  Sometimes I wonder if my daughter’s Barbie & Ken dolls are literally producing new Barbie dolls, because it seems as though there are quite a few new baby dolls ever month.  My son’s room isn’t any less perplexed by clutter.  He has so many Lego’s, Link-n-Logs, & building blocks that if we ever decide to add on to the house we are set to build.  Plus his toy soldiers, Marvel superheroes, ninja turtles, and Transformers are scattered all over resulting in what resembles a Civil War reenactment. 

The kids have stuff, Tracy has stuff, and I have stuff.  Even our dog has stuff, and trust me, doggie stuff isn’t valuable at all.   Our stuff is everywhere.  On some occasions I find myself muttering under my breath.  “Why do we have this?”  “Why do we need this?”  “What is this?”  “Where did this come from?”  “Gross….how did this get on my shoe?”     

Too much stuff can take you from being in a place of blessed abundance to a place of cluttered mess that brings stress, tiredness, and dissatisfaction. 

There has to be an answer to this situation, right?

Well there is. 

During the month of November, I will be preaching a series of sermons called “Counting My Blessings.”  This is a timely series because we are heading into the season of Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas.  It is this time of year that people become super aware of God’s desire for them to extend kindness, compassion, and generosity toward our fellow human-beings.  This series will help us to be thankful for what God has blessed us with, but more importantly how to be counted as a blessing to other people through simplicity of living and generous giving.  I hope you will join us this holiday season as we seek to be blessed and to be a blessing to our neighbors. 

 In Christ,

Travis

About the Snack:  This is a snack, a spiritual snack.  Snacks are not complete meals.  They are little morsels used to get us through the in-between times of meals.  In our case, the snacks are usually needed about mid-week.  They often reflect a thought from last Sunday’s sermons, a thing or two about the ministries of our church, but also offer opportunity to look ahead to next Sunday and beyond.