The Junk Collector

~

There was a man that had traveled for most his life. He had traveled from town to town, state to state, sometimes even a new country on occasion, but nothing had quite caught his interest long enough to stay. Finally came the day when he decided he would settle down.

  He stopped in the country side and found a house that was for rent, he called the number, met the owner and they discussed conditions and prices.

"I'll let you rent it, but you have to keep the place clean." 

The man agreed and shortly after moved in. 

One day the Owner of the house came by to chat for a bit. "I'll be heading out of town tomorrow," he said, "I have business to take care of a few states over. I expect you to keep the place clean even though I'm gone."

The man assured him that it would be so, and wished him good luck on his travels.

Now, the man had a peculiar hobby that fancied him. He enjoyed collecting junk. Not garbage per se, just junk that people had thrown away but that he thought looked nice, or that he thought he could use eventually for something or other down the road. "I must be careful," he thought, "not to let it get out of control, I need to keep the house and yard clean in case the master comes back unexpectedly."

But as the days went on and the Owner of the house was gone without a word, the man became quite relaxed with himself, and began to collect and store more and more junk. Soon he started putting small pieces of it in the backyard. "It's out of view of the public," he thought to himself, "surely it will be fine."

As the days went on he would occasionally clean the house of the old junk he had, but it was soon replaced with new junk and even more so at that!

One day he invited some close friends over, they began walking around and looking through his home, seeing all the junk they spoke to him. "Friend!" they cried, "This is not good for you to live like this! It's dirty and not healthy for you."

 "Bah!" said the man, "It's perfectly fine, I like it!! How can it be that bad when I quite enjoy having it?"

Then his friends tried to reason with him another way, "But what if the owner of this home comes back soon? He told you specifically to keep it clean!"

"It will be fine," he assured them, "I'll have it all cleaned before he gets here."

One day he was sitting down in his living room when suddenly the Owner of the home came back. He had no time to clean anything and could only sit in shame as he listened to the rebuke he received. 

"I told you to keep the house I gave you clean! What is all this garbage sitting around!? Because you have not kept the house clean I'm going to have to kick you out."

The man left, now homeless.. and with nothing but his junk.. which he soon realized gave him absolutely nothing but made his pack heavier, it served no purpose other than it had pleased him. But now it did not even do that. After a couple months, he came back to the man and asked for a second chance. 

"Sir, if it's alright with you. I would like to try again.." he said. 

The owner rubbed his chin for a bit thinking, then said, "Very well, I will allow you to live here again. But you must be diligent in keeping the house clean, I don't mind if you collect things. But they should be clean and pleasing to the eye, something to add to the room and not just take up space."

The man enthusiastically agreed and put forth great effort in taking good care of the home from that point on.

The owner stopped by on occasion, and would compliment him on the home and how it looked, both inside and out. 

~

As Christians there often times comes a time when we have a lot of junk in our lives. It can come in many forms, from emotional baggage, to things we keep locked inside. To even things we do day to day that we know we shouldn't but we do anyway "cause we like it". We don't need it, nor is it good to keep in our lives. But we do it anyway. As a result, the nice things that we could be keeping in our homes (our minds and bodies) we often time end up pushing out, and filling the space with all of the worlds garbage that carries no value in our lives. 

There's an old song that played in a movie I used to watch as a kid. The old McGee and Me movies, one of them had a song that said:

"What you see is what you get, so you better make sure that it's heaven sent. All the things you see and hear they will come back to you. So be careful what you choose, cause some things you'll never loose. You stick it in your mind, it's gonna stay right there in your heart."

How true this rings. And thus the reason the Bible stresses to us to be careful what we put in front of us or think about and also that we are to have our minds and thoughts on Christ!

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things." ~Philippians 4:8

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed in the renewing of your mind." ~Romans 12:2

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ." ~ 2 Peter 1:5-8

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 4:7

And Jesus gave us the parable as well in Matthew 12:43-45. If you are not filling your mind and heart with the things of God, and the Bible, then it will be empty. And you allow a space for the bad things to park and take space. 

But if you continually seek God and renew your mind each day with a little scripture reading then you are filling in all the cracks and taking up the space and filling your mind with the things of God. There will be no space for sin, nor for the junk that tries to enter our lives.

I hope that helps you :)

God Bless,

    Ryan