TWENTY-FOUR

"For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work they had to make it, and too much" (Exodus 36:7)

NO, this is not about that Fox television drama "24". My son enjoyed that show and I know it had a lot of fans. I only saw it a few times and frankly had a hard time getting into it.

The twenty-four I'm thinking about today is the cleaning out of a house after you've lived there for twenty-four years. I will say I AM grateful that our family has until April 1 to clean out what we want from that property and to turn our keys in. For a few who don't understand how this worked, that property was owned by the church (First Assembly of God of Framingham). When it was closed, the owndership of that property, and the "church property" at 32 South Street reverted to the leadership of the Southern New England District of the Assemblies of God. Some people somehow thought I OWNED it. That would have been nice, but that was never the case. I kind of lean on my wife Mary Ann and my son Jon for being "pack rats". And they are...especially Mary Ann. But in the cleaning out process, I've discovered an amazing amount of my own "stuff".

I've found things I thought I'd have gotten rid of years ago. I found things I own that I did not even know I had! I must have thrown out at least 9 "large green trash bags" worth of my own "stuff" since February 1...and I have more to go. Mary Ann and I moved on March 5, but I am very thankful we have until March 31 to get any of the rest of our "stuff" out of there, to throw out "junk" and to clean. In fact,the original Assemblies of God "cut off date" to be completely out was March 15 and I am so glad they extended it because we need at least two more weeks!

"Stuff". You know the stuff that you don't want but that it wouldn't be right to throw out?! Boy, I have more of that than I thought. My friend Debby Seler, missionary to Jamaica, says she LIKES to move because it forces you to get rid of stuff, get organized, etc. One of the biggest reasons I was upset about the church closing is that I just did NOT want to go through this process. Maybe it was the eight years my sister and I spent cleaning out my parents' stuff. It was depressing and tedious. I just did NOT want to go through clearing out a cluttered house like that again- NO WAY! And, yet, that is exactly what the Lord has had me doing. I just spent two hours cleaning. I know I could have spend three, but physically and emotionally, two was all I could do today. I'm off on Thursday and I have to "hit it hard" that day; and Mary Ann and I will have a good four or five days after that in which we really have to work hard at this project.

THEN, there is the project of ALL the boxes all over the apartment in Webster! I have done almost nothing on that in over a week. Between now and Memorial Day, all that stuff has to be emptied out and put away. Yeah, stuff.

It's ironic, isn't it? Complaining about sorting through my stuff when tens of thousands of people in Japan have lost EVERYTHING.