My Hoarder Weekend

"When Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."   ... Mark 6:34


******


Well, that was an exciting weekend!

Just kidding.  

Not counting a quick trip to Dollar Tree (me), Tom and I stayed home, watched the rain and two movies we'd seen before and oh! A fascinating (seriously) Netflix documentary about an old secret town in Russia (do I understand why I love that stuff? Nope.). 

Aaaand, I sat at this computer and watched bleary-eyed hours of Hoarders until my mind began doing weird things. It told me, "Hey! You've had some disappointments and tragedies like some of these folks have. Maybe you should go out and buy stuff like crazy."

Really, I considered it. Cue the Twilight Zone theme music here. Heh.

But then I told myself to knock it off. That God had poured so much effort and work into me since 1994 (especially) and it would be an affront to Him and hurt His feelings for me to knowingly walk backwards into bondage after He'd spent thousands of hours setting me free.

Still, I certainly do like that Hoarders show. :) 

For one thing, those psychologists and cleaning experts are graced with enormous patience! (Had I been there? I'd have slapped quite a few hoarders by now. Oh dear.) People doing what God called them to, fascinates me.

But yes, of course, the mounds of garbage are repulsive (how important to not view hoarders as their hoard). Yet as each hoarder's tragic past gets revealed, I recall there are reasons why people become hoarders or terrorists or your mean neighbor next door.

I watch Hoarders and remind myself that folks don't leave the womb furious at Life. Rather, they leave so vulnerably, unprepared for tragedies designed to make us all want to quit earlier than God ever intended.

Sometimes I wish we could all appear on a tv show where our own what-happened-to-us Past is revealed. Maybe then our foibles, bad attitudes and weaknesses would be more clearly understood. Yet oh, to be so exposed and honest, to risk opening wounds we'd imagined closed and offending our still-alive offenders--how many of us could actually do that?

But since that tv-show-for-all won't happen soon, I recommend the best healer, re-creator, heart purifier, head fixer and Friend, ever: Jesus.

Yes, Jesus and all the hope, strength, love and wisdom He carries with Him everywhere He goes, even into the human heart.

******

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."   ... 1 Corinthians 13:1


******

******

Oh! And I forgot to tell you something funny and kinda amazing. See, I always share a link to my blog posts at Twitter and after posting that one about how perhaps you do, after all, have estate sales in your area, Dorothy Breininger from Hoarders followed me(!) 

I had to smile when I zipped over to her own Twitter links and saw many for folks needing help with accumulating too much stuff. 

Perhaps Dorothy was worried that my estate-sale-finding-help will zoom us all down a bad, bad road.  :)

Anyway, how thrilling to realize Dorothy had followed me. Dorothy's one of my very favorite sunny-disposition, patient folks on Hoarders. She inspires me no end, especially when she diffuses situations just by being herself. It's like magic (the good kind).


******

Being hurt can make people do unimaginable things.

******


Free Kindle Books:


Wuthering Heights

A Brother's Bond

Becalmed