Stuff!

George Carlin did one of his stand-up comedy skits on “stuff.” It was hilarious!
He talks about how everyone has their own “little pile of stuff” and how people always have to have it safe. So, “when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff, ‘cause they always take the good stuff! They don’t bother with that crap you’re saving. Ain’t nobody interested in your fourth-grade arithmetic papers, National Geographics, commemorative plates, your prize collection of Navajo underwear; they’re not interested. They just want the good stuff; the shiny stuff; the electronic stuff. So when you get right down to it, your house is nothing more than a place to keep your stuff…while you go out and get…more stuff.”
I remember when we moved from Troy to St. Jacob. We were moving from a house that had 3500 square feet to a house that had 1125 square feet. The barn is 1175 square feet. We had to sell a bunch of our “stuff” before we could move into the new house because there was no way it would fit.
When we lived in the old house, I bought a huge oak dining room set from my sister in law when she got divorced because she wanted to see it stay in the family. She vowed to buy it back whenever and if she ever got remarried. She got remarried and bought herself a brand new cherry dining room set. The oak dining room set was “old stuff.” Our new house had no dining room so we had to sell it, but it went to a young couple just weeks away from getting married. So I was happy that some of my “stuff” was going to a good home.
It’s amazing how men and women look at their stuff quite differently. I left a kitchen that was huge and had a big island all the teenagers hung out at to move to a home that the kitchen was the size of a pantry. In fact, it is now a pantry. I had to get rid of a lot of kitchen stuff to fit into the new place. My husband got a barn and a garage for his stuff. The day we moved in, he kept telling those that helped us move where to put HIS stuff then would turn to me and ask where I wanted my JUNK to go. His stuff was stuff … my stuff was junk! Interesting!
Some of my stuff got put into the rafters of the barn and I haven’t seen it in 8 years. It was really important stuff, too! But, for the life of me, I can’t tell you what the stuff is.
One year for Easter, when all the grandkids were young, I set up an art area in my kitchen for all the kids to sponge paint tee shirts. My sister-in-laws were appalled! They couldn’t believe I would let these kids use paint in my house. The kitchen floor was linoleum and the paints were water based paints so it really wasn’t a big deal. It’s just “stuff.” Stuff that can be cleaned or replaced. The kids had such a great time and I still have several of those tee shirts with their names and the date on them. I have always wanted people to feel comfortable in and around my stuff.
I have heard people wonder out loud what stuff they would grab on their way out of a burning house. Of course there are things that can not be replaced easily like family photos or the family Bible, but it all is just stuff in God’s eyes.
Jesus puts it very simply, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure upon earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21.
Now that’s GOOD STUFF!