Chaplain's Corner

I enjoy watching “American Pickers” on TV. I am always amazed at the things people collect or just plain accumulate over a lifetime. When I was younger these folks were called “pack rats” and now-a-days we call them “hoarders”. For some there is a psychological component to the inability to get rid of things driven by anxiety and difficulty in making decisions. The International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation estimates that 1 in every 50 people struggle with severe hoarding. (Psychology Today – posted September 5, 2014).

But the other 49 out of 50 of us who don’t have this disorder still accumulate stuff over the years of our lives. Many of the conversations in my work; especially with older folks who are either having to give up their homes for apartments, condos or even for Personal Care Homes; have to do with decision making around downsizing and what to do with all their “stuff”. This is no small issue to an older person, laid up in the hospital, sometimes not even being able to be home when all these decisions are made.

Families deal with this in a number of ways. Some families take the time and have the patience to include mom or dad in the decision making, even getting leaves of absences from the hospital to take mom or dad home to help with the process. Other families just take over and make all the decisions. One older gentleman I once spoke with bemoaned the fact that he was hospitalized and within short order his home was sold, his belongings put in storage and all with him having virtually no input.

Sorting through and making decisions about one’s own “stuff” is not easy. Thirteen years ago my wife and I relocated within the city of Winnipeg. I had an office in our home and as a pastor I had accumulated a lot of books. My wife suggested that I downsize my library. At first I was very resistant, but then I started looking at all my books and I realized that many of them hadn’t opened since Seminary (1977). I finally agreed to pack just one box of books for the move. By the time I was through I had 15 banana boxes of books to donate to our church library. Truthfully, I haven’t missed a single book, but it was a big decision and it was important that I make it.

One of the developmental tasks of aging is “letting go”. After a life time of accumulating the time comes when we must let go. We not only have to let go of the “stuff” we have accumulated, but we are also pressed to let go of our independence, to let go of our mental abilities, and to let go of many of the relationships that enriched our lives.

In one way or another we are all “hoarders”. But life has a way of inviting us to let go. We don’t have to, we can wait until circumstances rip those things from our lives. But I have always found that choosing to let go is less painful than having life rip things from my grip. I think this is part the wisdom we find in Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven…a time to keep and a time to throw away.”

Things have a purpose, relationships have a purpose, memories have a purpose but when the purpose is fulfilled, it is time to let go, to release those things once precious or useful to the Lord. It is time to be grateful for what was and look with anticipation to what the Lord will provide for the next stage of life. Is there something in your life that you need to release? Why not let go willingly and save yourself the pain of having that precious thing ripped from your hands?