The Psychology of a Pack Rat

This past Wednesday I had Wesley and Riley join a group as we cleaned out a room for an elderly woman as part of our Wednesday Night Service. When we arrived at the home, the group had been at it for a half hour or so and while their progress was commendable, it was obvious that our work with this woman's basement was going to take longer than one night (we're going back this Wednesday). Simply put, she had accumulated a lot of stuff. She had her own business for several years and so still had a lot of that stuff. She had several rooms, nooks, and crannies that were just full of stuff. One of the boys' jobs was to separate key rings from one another and she had what looked to be over a 100 key rings- wow!

Throughout the evening and over the course of the rest of the week, I found myself wondering how a person can accumulate that much stuff, what goes on in a person's mind and psyche to be able to accumulate that much, and that variety, of stuff. This past Saturday morning I came face to face with my answer. Trarina and I decided to do a little early spring cleaning and set our target on tackling Wesley and Riley's room. Riley, simply put, has the psychology of a pack rat. When we began to reorganize his room and deposit some of his things into a white garbage bag, Riley's anxiety rose to alarming levels. He soon saw us discovering his various hiding places for his various treasures and was having a difficult time understanding that he couldn't keep all of his treasures. When it was all said and done, we threw out a garbage bag full of trinkets and toys. We threw out McDonald's toys (do we really three lemurs that say "I like to move it move it" every time we walk by the room?), Burger King toys (again, same argument, just replace with Neopets), and many other pieces of fine plastic assembled somewhere in China. Towards the end of the morning, the boys were each allowed to pardon a few of the treasures that they wanted to save from the garbage bag, and they seemed happy with that (as well as with new instructions on where they can keep said treasures).

Jesus said that we either store up treasures on earth or treasures in heaven. Events like this past week are a good reminder for me as to where I need to be leaving my treasures, and how I can help others do the same.