Dumping the Excess

When I turned the first wheelbarrow of yard clippings over at the street this morning, I thought, “Oh my, that felt good.”  I assumed it was just the result of a little hard labor.  Yet when I dumped the second, I nodded and mouthed, “Yes.”  By the time I had made my 3^rd trip to the curb, I knew the feeling well and I was beginning to understand its origin.  In fact, it was akin to the sensation I had yesterday morning when I dropped a load of clothes off at the consignment shop and then another at the local thrift store. This whole pruning thing felt good … it felt light … it, no, I felt freer.

But still, the world tells me to want more … and more … and more.  To accumulate.  To live high.  And so I do -- and I find myself restless.  But why such a feeling of imprisonment and slavery when I crave the more ... and such freedom when I dump my excess?  Could it be that the less really is the more? 

Not surprisingly, my morning Scripture reading had already set my heart for such thinking.  Jesus said, to His disciples, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).  Even as I read it, I could see the little dust mites gnawing away…  Yet I crave.

So what is it that attracts my attention … that I admire – that I want?  What is the more and on what is my heart set?  Is it something that is for my true good or something I just might need to dump? 

No doubt, I need to make a few more trips to that curb. 

Just an ordinary moment…