Someday

For those who may not know, in the fall of 2005 when I was 19 years old, my mother passed away. In the years following her death, I have fought the hard battle of what "stuff" to keep and what "stuff" to entrust to someone else (be it family, friends, the Salvation Army, or the garbage person).

I received a phone call last week from my dad. He and his wife were working on clearing out the storage unit. Our family has operated pretty heavily in the "It's just stuff... you can't take it with you..." mindset since 2005. Keeping this in mind, my dad has thought that it is silly to dump money into a place outside of your home to keep the stuff that you don't look at and/or use every day. I believe I have heard MWM and KLR ranting about storage units...

Anyway, I since my childhood I had listened to my mom, tucking away unopened Happy Meal toys and other "collectibles," uttering the phrase...

"It might be worth something someday!"

So as I made the drive home from my dad's storage unit with a 116 quart Rubbermaid tub full of stuff that "might be worth something someday," I pondered the thought of selling these things in order to fund my mission trip to Cambodia. Lovely idea, right?

Wrong.

After much un-bubble wrapping and searching around on the internet, I discovered that all of these things, no matter how "collectible," are not worth much money. Well now what? I felt at ease dispersing my mother's collectibles in order to fund a mission trip. I know that my mom would have been ok with that. But just to add them to a garage sale pile? Have some woman tell me that they're not worth $.25 a piece? How can I handle letting go of things like that?

And then I tell myself... it is embedded within me (and a majority of Americans) to look first at something and ask how much it is worth. I even do it with friendship and with ministry opportunities. What is this friendship worth? Is it going to cost me more to keep it than its worth? Or will it be "worth something someday" without ever coming to fruition.

So who am I to think first about the money around this mission trip. If God is calling me to this place, this team, these relationships, who am I to say that it is going to cost too much?

I am praying for myself to decrease, and for Christ to increase. This is my prayer above all else.