The Battle Against Stuff and For Love

To show great love for God and our neighbor we need not do great things. It is how much love we put in the doing that makes our offering something beautiful for God.
- Mother Teresa from "A Gift for God"

It's hard to know how much stuff you have, until the fateful day you have to move. When it has to get packed up and put into a limited space, it becomes impossible to hide it away or ignore how much one has. In June I moved everything I had in Bellingham back to the Tri-Cities where most of it went to our family's storage unit. I might add that there were already boxes of things that I never actually took to college with me, things I hadn't looked at or used in several years. The important things (read: outdoor gear and books) stayed conveniently in the garage at home so mom could mail it to me if I decided I needed it while I was in Austria.

Then I packed two bags weighing 50 lbs each with every possession I thought I would need for the next 9 months. After accomplishing the feat once while heading to Germany and learning form that experience, I had a better idea of what I should take or not and set my expectations low for what would actually fit. And I might add that if i didn't like so many sports, this wouldn't be as difficult but I brought most of my rock climbing gear (except rope and trad gear) and books, magazines, and other materials for school

If that sounds hard, keep in the mind that the hardest part is getting it all back home. After a year, it is surprising how things expand. Even buying a couple more sweaters, books, or beer steins can make a big difference if you've got a 50lb. limit (and it was already maxed out on the way over).

There is a certain amount of stuff necessary to survive and a little more to survive and be pretty comfortable. And there is an unlimited amount of stuff we can buy to make us feel better, we might use it some day, it looks cool, it is cool, it will make me look cool, or because, "why not?". Industrialized nations have a knack for employing these reasons, or should I say 'excuses', for buying more stuff, and Americans are especially skillful at this art. I just watched a really cool short video that explains where stuff comes from and where it goes after we are done with it. At the end you can also see 10 tips for how to help and a list or really interesting and related books.

I highly recommend checking it out:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

When I was a kid I had a bad habit of putting on an outfit, wearing it for a couple hours and then changing to a new one, just because. I also, in my spirit of organization, would throw away papers instead of recycling them or using the back side first. Or I would let my mom buy me some new clothes (she was paying of course) and then decide a couple months later that I didn't like it and it would end up in the give away pile. I remember especially a brown corduroy dress that ended up in the pile. Actually, in that case, I think it was a good choice. But what was I thinking buying it in the first place?

When I started buying my own clothes, I bought less, thought about it more, and looked at the price tags a lot more. My outfit changing obsession faded years ago, but when I started paying for every load of laundry I found myself wearing those jeans one more time before washing them. And when I went to Germany where you have to pay for a plastic shopping back if you want one, I started carrying around my own cloth bag or a least reusing the plastic ones. When I lived with 7 roommates and saw how often the trash had to be taken out (even though we recycled too) we asked the neighbors if we could bring our food scraps over to their compost pile since we weren't able to make our own in our rental house. When I realized it wasn't so far and I could burn off all the calorie from ice cream, I started riding my bike or walking to campus and the grocery store in Bellingham. And after living in a house without heat for a few days one winter, I realized turning the heat down a couple degrees and putting on a sweater wasn't such a hard thing (and saves money on the bill).

I've come a long way from my fashion obsessed days of my childhood but I feel like I am learning new things every day about the ills of our consumer driven society, the degradation of the environment, working conditions in other countries, poverty, and what God asks me to do for the least of these. All of this inspires me to further changes in my own life.

In this Advent season, and shopping season, think about how much you buy. Consider wrapping your presents in bags that can be reused, in fabric, in newspaper, or not wrapping them at all but making a scavenge hunt instead. And buy less presents! The holiday is not about us getting presents except for the gift of Jesus Christ so maybe we should focus on giving back something to the one who was given to us on Christmas. In fact, my guess is that the more money and extravagant gift buying are a part of Christmas, the less Jesus and thankfulness has to do with it.

So let us serve God this Christmas instead of ourselves. I'll let you think of things you can do, but the first one I think of is simply praying, wholeheartedly, to God and thanking him with all of your heart for who hes is and what he he has done. That really is all he asks of us anyway to have gratitude and love him. Love for others then springs from that. And giving lots and lots of gifts is probably not the best way we can show love for others. Not that giving gifts is bad, but I would guess that the gift of time or love or encouragement would be more meaningful than another CD for Christmas.

Prayer and meditation have an important part to play in opening up new ways and new horizons. If your prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of life—and not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and "safe"—God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our prayer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth.
- Thomas Merton, from Contemplation in a World of Action

Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.
- Proverbs 22:16-16

What other ideas do you have about saving the environment, consumerism, its oppression of people, showing gratitude, or meaningful ways to celebrate Christmas?