{"id":8482,"date":"2010-12-03T08:43:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T12:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=8482"},"modified":"2010-12-03T08:43:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T12:43:06","slug":"hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoarders, Possessions, and the End Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

2 Peter 3:13<\/strong> But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have good news\u2014this world is temporary\u2014everything that is wrong with it will be made right.\u00a0 Part of God\u2019s plan of redemption is a restoration of our fallen world.\u00a0 It will be a world free from the effects of the fall\u2014no sin and death, no disease, no frustrating labor.\u00a0 It will be a place where men still work, where they still plant and create and think and live in community (Isa. 65:17-24), only the work we do will be prosperous and the fruit our work produces will be enjoyed rather than competed for.\u00a0 There will be no greedy positioning because our greedy hearts will be healed and because we will know and be satisfied with Jesus being king.\u00a0 I am really looking forward to this!<\/p>\n

What does this have to do with Hoarders<\/a>?\u00a0 Maybe nothing, maybe a lot, all I know is that the AE reality show has forced me to think about eschatology and what is going to happen to all my stuff.\u00a0 Hoaders delves into the lives of people who compulsively hoard various things\u2014sometimes food, clothing, paper, trash, and various other objects.\u00a0 Each episode \u201cfollows two follows two different people whose inability to let go of their belongings is so out of control that they are on the verge of personal disaster.\u201d \u00a0Each of the subjects of the show are provided a clean up crew to clean their house and an expert organizer\/psychologist to help them with the emotional side of their habit.<\/p>\n

Jesus warns us not to fall into the perpetual practice of building bigger and bigger barns to store all our stuff because in the end \u201cthe things you have prepared, whose will they be?\u201d\u00a0 There is a connection between our soul and our stuff\u2014apparently if our soul is tied up in our stuff in an unhealthy way, it could be a sign of soul-sickness as Jesus says of this person building bigger barns \u201cFool! This night your soul is required of you\u201d (Luke 12:15-22).\u00a0 Jesus isn\u2019t completely against stuff\u2014he compares the gospel to treasure continually, he tells us to equip ourselves with \u201cmoneybags that do not grow old\u201d so that we can give to people in need (Luke 12:33).\u00a0 One of the more fascinating aspects of the show is that hoarding is not by any means limited to the wealthy, but it does appear to be particularly common among Americans (who are wealthy by the rest of the world\u2019s standards).<\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with Hoarders?\u00a0 Hoarders is a TV show about people who clearly have an unhealthy relationship to their stuff.\u00a0 The show is fascinating in many ways.\u00a0 One because these people have their sins of hoarding aired in public and because the show makes a deliberate effort to delve into the psychology behind their hoarding habits.\u00a0 I feel a little awkward watching the show because of the public way in which these people\u2019s bad habits are aired for all to see, but it\u2019s important to remember that these people at least recognize that they are not right\u2014otherwise they would never agree to go on the show.\u00a0 Every time I watch, I root for the personal growth of the hoarders, I cheer them on as they make steps toward reform.\u00a0 However, Hoarders is mostly a tragedy, there are some stories that seem to end happily, but more often than not, the \u201cdog returns to its vomit\u201d as it were (Prov. 26:11).<\/p>\n

It would seem that possessions have an allure that is hard to kick\u2014so hard that one lady picks pumpkin seeds out of disgustingly rotted pumpkins and another lady shuts down in the middle of the clean up project and refuses to continue.\u00a0 Marriages, parent-child relationships, and friendships fall apart on screen due, at least in part, to these people\u2019s obsession with earthly goods.\u00a0 I am not going to pretend that these people\u2019s issues are simple or that they don\u2019t have emotional scars that are keeping them from maintaining a healthy relationship to their possessions, but I do want to say that a good dose of Biblical eschatology might help gain a little perspective on what place our possessions ought to have in our lives.\u00a0 Ultimately what these people need is their minds transformed by Christ, but for those of you who know Christ, I want to shed a little light on how our eschatology can influence how we perceive our possessions.<\/p>\n

Our possessions in and of themselves are not evil.\u00a0 I know this because of all the physical things that are going to be present in the new heavens and the new earth (Isa. 60-66) and more simply because God created everything and declared it very good (Gen. 1:31).\u00a0 Possessions only become sinful when we misappropriate them.\u00a0 I also know that in the new heavens we will work and we be compensated for our work and it will be good (Isa. 65:21-22).\u00a0 So work is a good thing and payment for said work is also good (Luke 10:7; 2 Thess. 3:10).\u00a0 What you buy with what you make is another discussion.\u00a0 I find it interesting that the Bible never lays out a quota for us of what percentage of our income we should give to the needy or to the church or to missions.\u00a0 What we do know is that Jesus was the most giving person who ever lived and He calls us to follow his example of self sacrifice (Mark 8:34).<\/p>\n

I think in the new heavens we will have many of the possessions we have now, only we will keep them in their proper place\u2014as undeserved gifts from our gracious heavenly father.\u00a0 We won\u2019t fight over them and we won\u2019t covet because we will already possess the greatest gift imaginable\u2014an intimate relationship with the God who made us (Isa. 65:24).\u00a0 So in the meantime how should we feel about our stuff?\u00a0 I can\u2019t delineate what is appropriate for you, but I for one recognize that the Lord has already given me \u201cmoney bags that do not grow old\u201d and I pray God would make me more joyfully willing to part with them for His glory and the good of those created in His image.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Possessions have an allure that is hard to ignore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1220,"featured_media":8485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-headline","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nHoarders, Possessions, and the End Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Possessions have an allure that is hard to ignore.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hoarders, Possessions, and the End Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Possessions have an allure that is hard to ignore.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-03T12:43:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drew Dixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Drew Dixon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/\",\"name\":\"Hoarders, Possessions, and the End Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-12-03T12:43:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-12-03T12:43:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/5f415ebdfad415698ef4cc30c8a4003a\"},\"description\":\"Possessions have an allure that is hard to ignore.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/12\/hoarders-possessions-and-the-end-times\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hoarders, Possessions, and the End Times\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/5f415ebdfad415698ef4cc30c8a4003a\",\"name\":\"Drew Dixon\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fecdae71c22c54efe622a1b87c056c0f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fecdae71c22c54efe622a1b87c056c0f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Drew Dixon\"},\"description\":\"Drew is an editor at Christ and Pop Culture and editor-in-chief of Gamechurch.com. 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