Things

The hands of the Amish auctioneer workers silently beckoned spectators to become involved in the bidding. Their eyes moved quickly across the crowd of people as they watched for interested bidders. “Yup!” they would yell and raise up their fist as someone nodded for their bid. The quick, rhythmic chant of the auctioneer continued as they tried to get the best price for the item that was being shown.
There were just over 300, mostly Amish made quilts, beautiful furniture sets and many craft items such as rag rugs, woven baskets and small wooden items to be auctioned off. For quite a bit of the day there were 3 auctioneers calling at one time at different parts of the property. It made for a day of auditory overload.

We got there early. We were there to unload some of our things for the consignment auction of tools, misc. furniture and collectibles. Dale also had brought a rocking chair to sell that he had made last winter.
We’ve done this a few times before. Get there early, unload our things to sell, put up our chairs under the tent where the quilts are sold, eat some of the delicious Amish doughnuts, and then enjoy the action. There were at least 1000 people there this time. It was the year of the buyer. Prices were down compared to other years. Beautiful quilts were going for around $150 - $250 on average. I only heard 2 that went for about $500. That’s low for the quilts.

I moved back and forth from the big tent where the quilts and furniture were to the little tent which just had the crafts and small quilted items, then outside where Dale was most of the day watching and waiting for our things to go up for auction.

We’ve now decided that it’s best if we’re not there to watch our items being sold. There are things that Dale thought we should have gotten more for. He thought about buying back a few things so that he could sell them somewhere else - glad he didn't. Then there were things that went for more than we thought that they would.

But, they are just things.
Our garage has become less crowded as we’ve gotten rid of things that we had duplicates of or just didn’t really need anymore. But, as we go through things, the thought enters the mind, “I might need that some day.”
But, they are just things and we have too many of them.
It was our day to get rid of things.
We only bought 2 hot pads and a wooden clamp, for all of $12.

Things have a tendency to hold us back. If we didn’t have all of our things, how much easier would it be to serve God in a different way, in a different place? I don’t believe that God ever intended us to have so much in the way of earthly possessions. Jesus and His disciples didn’t have much. Yes, that was a different time – different world. But, what they did have, they quickly let go of and “followed” Him. I would like to think that I could and would do the same thing. But, I know that it would be hard for me.

There’s a song out by Matthew West called “The Motions”.
I love the words.

“I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don’t want things to keep me just "going through the motions". I don’t want to be held back from what God wants in my life because I’m held captive by things that fill my house and my life.
I want God’s all consuming passion to fill me and move.
To help me see as He sees.
To take my eyes off of things and onto the people that He loves.