Having nothing, and yet possessing all things.—2 Corinthians 6:10
I’ve been feeling overloaded lately, the way I feel when I travel with too much luggage. That’s why I really needed to hear what a wonderfully wise lady at the nursing home told me this morning.
Mrs. Elliot said that when her home was sold and she had to give up the accumulations of a lifetime, she thought that she “just couldn’t get along without all of those things. But you know, a rather amazing thing happened.
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Once I let go of all of that, I found a new sense of inner freedom. It was as if I had exchanged certain material blessings, which were only clutter, really, for spiritual blessings, which are infinitely more valuable.”
It’s a good lesson for me to ask in this Lenten season. Oh, I’m not going to sell all of my possessions, but I am going to examine my life to see what’s cluttering it up. Maybe I don’t need to go to all of those meetings. And wouldn’t it be nice not to have to dust so many knickknacks?
Perhaps I could even turn down a few social engagements. In place of these, I could spend more quiet time with God. Because Mrs. Elliot is right: Spiritual blessings are infinitely more valuable than any external things.
