It was a page right out of Ecclesiastes 3, ”...a time to keep and a time to throw away.” We had scheduled a garage sale for Saturday, so by mid-afternoon on Friday we were dripping with sweat in the garage opening boxes and examining the contents in an effort to determine whether it was “stuff to keep,” “stuff to sell,” or “stuff to trash.” Two days, lots of sore muscles, one trip to the local benevolent center, and several bags of garbage later, our garage is cleaner and neater than it has ever been.

    Half of the garage had been filled with boxes. Some were new boxes from our move last fall. Some were boxes from previous moves covering more years than I want to admit. Some boxes had been moved from one attic to another attic to another attic and finally into the storage facility. Growing tired of paying the monthly rental fee, we moved them into one side of the garage.

    It was an interesting, almost entertaining, process (not necessarily the view of our daughter). Each box contained a new set of old memories. One box would contain pictures of our children, so we would stop and remember “those days.” Another box would contain baby clothes, so my wife would stop and hold them to her face and recall the feel and smell of those tiny precious children. The next box would be filled with our own clothes, revealing the fads and fashions of our day. Each box prompted us for a decision: keep, sell, give away, or trash.

    During the sale, we made some great deals. You see we were not trying to get rich, we were just ready to get rid of stuff and make whatever we could.

• “Twenty-five cents for everything on that table.”
• “One dollar for that outfit.”
• “Five dollars for that piece of furniture.”
• “You can have five of anything in that box for a quarter.”
• “That’s free if you will take it.”
• “I don’t think we better sell that.”

Every now and then we may need to have a mental and spiritual garage sale.

    The sale ended. The boxes have been broken down and ready for the dump. The garage has been swept. Both cars are again in the garage. This neatnik feels better. What began as an attempt to empty the storage space tuned out to be a stroll down memory lane and a reminder of how good life is. The experience of reliving the moments from our past, and of sharing the experience as a family, turned out to be far more valuable than any amount of money we could have made in the sale.

    Every now and then we may need to have a mental and spiritual garage sale. We need to open the boxes that we have been saving to see if the contents are worth keeping. We do not need to keep what needs to be thrown away. There’s that box full of guilt over the sin that has long been forgiven and forgotten. There’s that bag of grudges that we should have never even collected. There is also that box of mental pictures of people, places, blessings, and gifts from the Lord. They need to be cherished and preserved.

    There’s a time to keep, and a time to throw away. And to each memory, there is a season under heaven.

© 2001, Tom Norvell. Used by permission. A Norvell Note is a weekly email message from Tom Norvell. Check it out!

Title: "A Time to Throw Away"
Author: Tom Norvell
Publication Date: September 27, 2001

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