James’s Blog: Rubbish.

Ruth and I have very different ideas on ‘stuff’. She thinks that if it’s not being used, and is just lying around making the place look untidy, then chuck it out. I think that if it’s not being used, and is just lying around making the place look untidy, then leave it alone. It’s not hurting anyone.

My parents were happy when I moved out. They turned up on my doorstep with cardboard boxes full of stuff I’d left in their attic. Boxes of things like cinema ticket stubs, old posters and last year’s exam papers. Basically, boxes full of fire hazards.

When we got married, Ruth said, “You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.” I stood my ground, because I knew that a day would come when she desperately needed to know the name of a film I had seen at the cinema ten years previously, and then I’d be laughing.

But that day never came, and now it’s all gone. It’s not the first time my wife has been right about something, and it won’t be the last.

You throw out stuff that you don’t need, but you don’t throw out the useful, shiny stuff. I’m sure we’ve all got stories of people we know, on their hands and knees, going through the bin because they think that they threw away the receipt or the money from a birthday card or some other good thing that they didn’t mean to lose. No-one deliberately throws away good things. Well, as Fred Craddock once suggested, no-one except Paul of course.

Whatever was to my profit, he told the Philippians, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

He was talking about all the useful, shiny stuff he had. His academic achievements, his hard work, his A+ credentials. You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.

That’s the thing about following Jesus. No-one bats an eyelid if you say, “I used to lie, cheat and steal. I used to say really hurtful things to people. I used to throw bricks through people’s windows if I didn’t like them. But now I am a Christian and I consider all of that rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ.” No-one is going to object to that. That’s what religion is for.

But if you say, “I used to work hard at my job. I made good money. I was a valuable and productive member of my community. But now I am a Christian and I consider all of that rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ.”? Well, that’s the kind of thing that raises eyebrows. That’s the kind of thing that gets bricks thrown through your window.

Once again, we must consider what it really means to follow Jesus. It’s not just the boxes of old exam papers that are fire hazards now. You have to be prepared to consider it all, everything, rubbish compared to the greatness of knowing Christ. It doesn’t matter how shiny and impressive it is. It doesn’t matter that it took you years to collect. You don’t need that stuff. Get rid of it.

But who among us has the courage to do that?