In August of this next year, my daughter Olivia will be riding in the longest, most grueling horse race on the planet. It is 1000km (620 miles) across the Mongolian steppe desert. It will undoubtedly be a memorable and epic journey for her.
Part of the preparation is figuring out what to pack for the journey. Each rider’s overall weight limit is 85kg (183 lbs) (dressed to ride). (Even if I was naked, I could not personally ride in this race).
Each rider can bring 5kg (11 lbs) in personal gear (excluding your water).
Riders who finish the race understand that the assignment is to pack well but travel light. Everything that goes in your pack has to be carefully considered. How big should my med kit be? How much extra food do I carry? How heavy should my sleeping bag be?
The leading cause of riders dropping out is hypothermia, so layers are essential but how much is enough and how much is too much? What do you pack, and what do you leave behind?
As we approach Christmas, I am reminded of another epic journey, the on that pregnant Mary and Joseph took. I can only imagine that packing well but traveling light was crucial for them as they took their 90-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where the Son of God was born in humble circumstances. We read about it in Luke 2:
Luke 2:1-7 (CSB)—In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
For Mary and Joseph, it began with the journey to Bethlehem, but that was just the beginning of the journey for them. For Mary, that journey included standing at the foot of the cross and watching the son she had given birth to die.
Life with Jesus is a journey in almost every way. The Apostle Paul even compares it to a race. Paul encourages us to finish the race we run well. We are travelers.
1 Chron 29:15 is a part of a prayer of King David, and he says this:
1 Chron 29:15 (CSB)—We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
We are travelers. The time we travel here is brief compared to spending eternity in our permanent home. But how we travel this life matters. Our assignment is to pack well for the journey but travel light.
That is the theme for our Advent series this year.
Travel Light
Traveling light is not an easy thing. Two weeks ago, we finally listed my mother-in-law’s house for sale. They lived in the house for over 50 years. Isn’t it amazing what happens when you live in the same house for 50 years? You accumulate a lot of stuff. It took us over a year of working every week to get that house ready to sell. Most of that work involved going through the stuff they had accumulated. There were 4 of us doing the work. My wife probably did 75% of the work.
Every week, for two years prior to us beginning the process of getting the house ready to sell, my wife had already started helping them downsize. Going through paperwork and books and stuff in their closets and the garage. So it has been about a 3-year process.
In many places in both the Old and New Testaments, God draws a line between a journey such as the one Mary and Joseph took and the journey that is our life. The longer we travel that journey, the more we tend to accumulate.
We accumulate distractions, hurts, and disappointments. If we are going to finish the race well and keep our eyes on the prize, we must pack well and travel light. That means letting go of some things. We need to let go of distractions, bitterness, control, failures, and stuff.
The title of this morning’s sermon is Letting Go of Stuff.
It’s better to have less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does.
Everything in our culture screams the opposite of this. Once again, it goes back to the very first lie that humanity believed in the garden.
God said that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree in the garden except one. But Satan convinced Eve that God was keeping something from her by denying her the fruit from that one tree.
The lie that Adam and Eve believed is the same lie we continue to buy into: What you don’t have is the one thing you need to be happy, fulfilled, and complete. Our culture tells us that more is always better.
$1 is good, but $2 is better
One car is good, but two cars are better
One vacation is good, but two vacations are better
King Solomon pushed back on that lie when he wrote:
Ecc 4:4-6 (CSB)—I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one person’s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. The fool folds his arms and consumes his own flesh. Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.
Jesus said it another way:
Lk 12:15 (CSB)—He then told them, “Watch out and be on guard against all greed, because one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”
And then Jesus tells this parable about a guy who spends his life accumulating wealth and building barns to store more stuff. When he finally has accumulated all this stuff, and he feels like he can finally enjoy his life, he dies.
Jesus ends the parable with this statement:
Lk 12:21 (CSB)—“That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
You are not what you own, what you drive, or what you wear.
But the advertisers want you to believe something very different. As we head into Christmas, every ad, post, commercial, and message will shout the very opposite of what Jesus just said. The advertisers will tell you that what you don’t have is what you need to be happy, cool, and feel good about yourself.
What if the stuff you have is robbing you of the life you want and need?
Solomon said, “Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort.”
What does that look like for us? Here are a few practical ideas to help you travel light regarding your stuff. I don’t think any of these ideas are new ideas. I suspect every one of us has heard these suggestions before. I hope to simply remind you of these things and hopefully move you toward doing something about this problem of having too much stuff.
Throw Out
Throwing out stuff like your life depends on it because it does in many ways. You know that movie scene where a storm is tossing the ship and the captain tells the crew to start throwing the cargo overboard or the ship will sink? That’s what we are talking about here.
I’m not talking about de-cluttering but de-owning. Re-arranging the cargo on the ship doesn’t keep the ship from going down. Don’t just go out and buy more plastic totes to organize your stuff so it looks like you own less but actually own less.
Matt 19 tells us about Jesus encountering the rich young ruler who asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus knew the young man was rich, and he told the young man to go and sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and then come follow Him.
Matt 19:22 (CSB)—When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.
You never know your idols until Jesus asks you to give them up.
It’s not wrong to have things. As a matter of fact, I believe God gives us things to enjoy. However, it is wrong when things have you! When what you have distracts you from what really matters, throw it out!
Why do we hold on to all those knickknacks, dishes, VHS tapes, junk drawers packed full, and pants we haven’t worn since MC Hammer was making our fashion decisions for us.
We tend to hold onto this stuff for two reasons: Fear and Sentiment.
Fear: We’re afraid we might need it someday, or our children might want it or we’re worried about wasting stuff.
Sentiment: Often, emotions are attached to our stuff. We get sentimental about a gift we receive or some ribbon our kids won, or the first diaper they ever pooped in (we hold onto some crazy stuff).
Learning to trust God’s faithfulness and experiencing the fact that He is our provider helps us overcome that fear that causes us to hold onto stuff just in case.
If you own stuff you haven’t used in the last year, you should consider moving it out, not moving it to another closet.
Author Marie Kondo has a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I’m just now reading this, but I know this has been life-changing for many people. Netflix also has a series called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. She walks you through the process of getting rid of stuff.
Letting go of stuff happens when we throw out the stuff that is cluttering our life, but it also means that we
Buy Less
American culture is a culture of consumers. Why are we driven to buy, buy, buy, own, own, own?
This need to consume can be motivated by our need for escape from the anxiety and the hard things in our lives, our need for constant entertainment, or an obsession with new clean, shiny things and even sometimes a desire for momentary significance.
My motivation for buying sometimes comes from my growing up years. My family didn’t have much. Financially, we were very insecure, barely making it most months. There was always this attitude of scarcity and this worry that we wouldn’t have what we needed. So, I hold on to things and buy things in response to that worry.
How often do we buy something just because it was a good deal? And how often do we buy something we don’t need with money we don’t have? Now, I’m starting to hit a little close to home for many of us.
I have certainly been guilty of both of these things over the years. As always, my goal is not to make you feel guilty or to make you feel like a failure for falling for the enemy’s lies. My heart is to remind us of our propensity for falling into these traps so we can change what we do.
Again, life is a journey. One of the goals for our journey is to pack well and travel light. Often that comes from learning from our past and praying for the Holy Spirit to empower us to live lives that find fullness not in temporary things but in things that will last, in Kingdom things.
Ps 119:36-37 (NLT)—Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.
Let’s intentionally do things that will fill us with Kingdom things rather than worldly things. When our lives are full of relationships, serving and loving people, and being devoted to knowing Jesus more, we won’t need stuff to fill a void.
Buy Less
62% of people admit to shopping to cheer themselves up. Retail therapy.
Choose experiences over things!
My kids are better at this than I am. As Christmas approaches, Stacey and I have been discussing what to get the girls for Christmas. It’s hard because they don’t want more stuff. They are more interested in experiences. Experiences with family and friends and adventures like the one Olivia is doing next August.
Instead of buying more stuff, let’s invest in those things. Let’s invest in the things that truly fill us up and grow us rather than stuff that weighs us down and hinders us.
Finally, traveling light when it comes to our stuff means that we learn how to
Give More
It means we develop the spiritual discipline of generosity.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 (CSB)—Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share, storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.
Our culture says to buy more and hoard it all, and Amazon makes it so stinking easy; just click Buy It Now.
Like most of us here, I have been on both sides of generosity. I have stories about times when people were generous to me and my family, and I have stories of times when I have been able to be generous to others, and both of those have been life-changing for me.
There were times when Stacey and I had no food in our fridge or freezer, and we would come home and find groceries on our doorstep. There was a time when our car broke down, and we didn’t have a vehicle, and someone gave us a car. It wasn’t just any car, it was a Mercedes Benz. God, through the generosity of the people He has put in our lives, has always provided for us. Through that, He has taught us to be generous people.
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul says God blesses us with material blessings so we can turn around and re-invest those blessings by giving generously.
Remember, this world is not our home. We are traveling through and waiting for our permanent home. Are you accumulating on earth what you cannot keep? Or are you investing in heaven what you cannot lose?
So let’s travel light when it comes to our stuff.
Throw Out—Buy Less—Give More!
Solomon said, “Better one handful with rest than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.”
Why is one handful better?
Because if you have one hand free, you can use that hand to help someone up when they are down, you can use that free hand to give when someone has a need, you can use that free hand to encourage someone when they are struggling and with that free hand, which is margin in your life, you can offer God praise in a way that you cannot when your life is consumed with stuff.
Life is better when you don’t allow the stuff you have to keep you from the life you want and need.
What is one way you can deal with your stuff this holiday season? It could be taking the step of de-owning some things or a new attitude toward how you buy and are generous.
Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and empower you to do what you know you can’t do on your own.
Chris Hankel 
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