When you downsize from a large 4 bedroom house and yard to a small 2 bedroom unit you soon learn a lot about possessions. You also learn a lot of unexpected things about possession!

Now when people talk about "being possessed" their immediate thoughts turn to satanic evil spirits, all things supernatural and the head spinning ability to see everything in a creepy 360 degree panorama. Seldom does anybody's thoughts turn to the everyday things lurking quietly in your house, yard, and garage - unless you are downsizing or somewhat tangental in your thinking. Or, as in my case, both.

We think in terms of owning stuff, but the truth is, it is the stuff that possesses us. And the more we own the more we become possessed. How many have saved up the money to by a flash new car, only to realise that suddenly they have to pay more of their hard earned dollars on insurance, services repairs and petrol. Not only that but suddenly every second weekend finds you in your driveway washing, polishing and vacuuming trying desperately to maintain that fresh, shiny, luxury new look you just paid so much for. You may have a flash new car and be the envy of the neighbourhood, but suddenly you find a not insignificant slice of your time and money and life has now been possessed by your car as you try to keep it in the manner to which it has rapidly become accustom. Then for some mad insane reason you think it would look so much better if it was towing a flash new boat. Suddenly another large chunk of your money and weekends disappears into "asset maintenance" as you somehow squeeze looking after the car and boat into the weekly routine of mowing, weeding, watering, vacuuming, leaf blowing, pool cleaning, etc., etc.

Then eventually you wake up one day and find you have succeeded in having everything you ever  dreamed of - except the time, money and energy to enjoy it. Your waking hours and weekly budget are spent looking after and maintaining all you have. Your life is no more your own. It is owned by the things you possess.

The short of it is, that when we buy stuff we are often just paying for the privilege of being thereafter enslaved to it. Now sometimes the benefit we derive from the stuff we have outweighs, or at least breaks even with, the costs, effort, time and energy needed to maintain it. But there are times when we would be better off using the money, time, effort, and energy elsewhere. Those times greatly increase the more we own and the more of our lives we need to set aside for maintaining it. It is exceedingly easy to reach a point where everything we do is for the sake of everything we own.

We use to have a pool, until we realised we spent an extraordinarily greater amount of time and energy cleaning it, repairing it and maintaining it than we ever did actually in it. It is a really nice garden now. Likewise we use to have a 4 bedroom house surrounded by 1,000 square metres of lawns and gardens and an inordinately large portion of our lives and budget was just spent doing nothing more than maintaining it all. But eventually, after our children had grown up and had places of their own, there was only the two of us there and we only lived in three and a bit rooms. Our lives had become possessed by the upkeep of things we really did not need. So we downsized to a two bedroom unit by the water that takes all of ten minutes to vacuum if you try hard enough and no yard-work at all.

But downsizing was only the process. What we were really doing was upsizing and refocussing our lives by downsizing the things that possessed it. All that time energy and money we spent maintaining what we really did not need we can now invest in the things that really are important and meaningful to us .... And to the Lord.  For who we are and what we value most, especially in the eyes of the Lord, is not about what we possess, but about what we do with what we possess.  And in the end all we really possess is .... the life He has given us. What will you do with the one He has given you?

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

D.J. Ludlow

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