VIS or JPJ?

When Jesus heard this he replied, "There is one thing lacking. Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor." - Luke 18:22



When I was working in youth and family ministry full time, my office would often resemble a storage closet more than an office. From my experience - youth directors, principals, and preschool directors have the same problem - given enough time, their offices become storage places for everything imaginable.


Now granted, it is often very important stuff - curriculum, VBS supplies, recreational supplies, art supplies, handbooks, policies, regulations..... You get the idea.


Before I moved from Minnesota to California, I had an office, a house, and a two-car garage filled with stuff - and I could probably make a good case for most of it being important. Of course some of that stuff had been untouched in boxes in the garage for 10 years. And some of it had been in boxes somewhere for even longer than that - all of it VIS (Very Important Stuff).


When it came time to move to California, I had to weed through all of that VIS and like it or not, 90% of it had to be downgraded to GWS/SAS (Goodwill Stuff/Salvation Army Stuff), and JPJ (Just Plain Junk) that was pitched into a large trash bin.


Much as I didn't want to get rid of all that VIS, I had to find a new home for it. It was bogging me down and certainly could not have been shipped 2000 miles to California. Like the rich young ruler, I had to get rid of the stuff that was bogging me down before I could answer God's call to move.


My guess is that we all have areas in our home that are filled with VIS which someday someone will have to sort through and decide which is really VIS and which is JPJ before we can move on with our lives and answer God's call to go and do.


So why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we collect and collect and collect? I'm not just talking about the stuff that collects in our closets. We also tend to collect grudges, hurts, crammed schedules and other burdens that bog us down and keep us from answering God's call. To top it all off, as far as God is concerned, anything that keeps us from answering his call is JPJ - Just Plain Junk. - suitable for the trash heap.


Daily we are called to follow. Daily we are called to sort through the stuff in our lives and dump everything that is holding us back. Daily Jesus calls us to "sell all that you have..." and follow him with nothing but the faith which he gives us. Will we follow? Or will we be like the rich young ruler who went away sad because he didn't see his VIS as JPJ?