How Much Storage do we Really Need?

At one time I lived in an urban community with medium sized houses. Going for walks in my neighbourhood I noticed that all the homes had double car garages yet many people were parking their vehicles on the street. I thought this odd until I started to see that many of these garages were filled to the brim with stuff – some contained normal garage things like bikes, but there were also numerous storage totes and boxes in most of them.

Needing storage areas seems to be a thing these days, confirmed by the numerous amounts of storage facilities available to us. There are stores totally devoted to organizers, totes, bins, and baskets. The mantra seems to generally be that if you have the right storage solutions, all will be well and your home will be organized.

Recently I have begun reading more about living simply. I do not want to be total minimalist, but I do have to consider what I put in my personal space. Our home is not large and our needs are not the same as when we had children at home.

When I think about “stuff”, a Scripture passage in Luke comes to mind:

“Then He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’” (Luke 12: 15 NIV)

That is definitely not the message of our world today. We are bombarded with ads to purchase all kinds of things. I go onto a garden site for information and all of a sudden, I get presented with numerous garden tool ads. Look up anything online and this sort of thing happens. Our media is full of presentations to encourage us to spend more money and have more things. The common conception is that having more possessions equals success.

This Luke passage totally contradicts that way of thinking. God doesn’t see us as successful if we have an abundance of possessions. He looks at our heart and our character. Those, as well as things like integrity and honour, are more the measure of a person’s “success”.

Following this Scripture passage Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who had an abundant crop. He has to build bigger barns to store it all. The account continues with the rich man focused on himself – that he has provided for himself and now he can eat, drink, and be merry for years to come.

Now this portion of Scripture is not saying that we shouldn’t be successful. Our hard work and planning are not a bad thing if we have the right motive. In the case of the parable, however, the focus of the man is on the man himself and his needs without thought to caring for others. For him the value was in what he could see – his barns filled to the brim with resources – not in what God had provided for him.

Jesus ends the parable with God’s wrath coming down on the rich man as God calls him a fool for thinking that true value is in what he possesses.

Earthly items/collections/treasure – however you label it – do not provide true security. Too often, these things cause us to look for our satisfaction in places other than in God.

Some of my reading in the area of living simpler points out that clutter is actually stressful. It has put me on a mission to eliminate clutter, not only from household possessions, but also in other areas of my life.

Taking time to declutter our hearts and minds is a useful endeavour; but only if it is done with a prayerful perspective, trusting our Lord to show us what is truly needful. If the Lord blesses us with material possessions, we should be considering how the Lord wants us to use them for His glory and purposes, not how we can feather our own nests.

In our cluttered world with so much thrown our way on a daily basis, may we be able to take the time to focus on what our Lord has done for us and what His plan is for us. He will direct us to more simple, focused living that is centered and grounded in Him. That is success!

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