Spiritual Hoarders

I would describe myself as a microhoarder. I save pretty much everything, especially drawings that my children or grandchildren created for me over the years. But then I save random things, such as a single cord to a device I no longer have.

My wife, Cathe, will pick up a cord and say, “What does this go to?”

“I don’t know,” I’ll tell her, “but one day I may need it.”

So, I throw it in a box, where they are all tightly wound together into a big ball of cord madness. But every now and then, I find the very cord I was looking for.

I also save single socks, by the way. If I happen to lose one sock, I will save it in case the other sock returns somehow.

But some people are serious hoarders. We’ve seen the shows about them on television. Over the years, they have stacked books, newspapers, and magazines from floor to ceiling and collected weird junk.

Now people are hoarding other commodities: toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

I think Christians, too, can hoard. I’m not talking about stockpiling reading material or paper goods, however. I’m talking about when they look at church and think, “What’s in this for me? How are you meeting my needs?”

Jesus said of Himself, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45 NLT).

A real mark of spiritual maturity is that you no longer perceive church, thinking about how you can be served. Instead, you look for ways to serve others. You have skin in the game. And that indicates you’re growing spiritually.

I guarantee that as you focus on helping others and ministering to others, you will be blessed.