Anyone whose known me for any length of time knows I love a good auction, bargain, garage sale, or other really good discount.  In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that money is tight, I would probably be at more auctions than I am, not to buy things most times, but just to be there, to enjoy the time spent at the sale, and sometimes even to engage in the hunt, to experience the thrill of the chase as I seek out that epic bargain.

At one of my most recent auctions, the third in a series of three at the same address, I came across something very interesting.  But before I get into that I want to add a bit of clarification.  One of the long standing inside jokes among auction junkies is that we love horder auctions.  IE, auctions at estates and properties of people who are known horders.  The primary reason why is 1) there's LOTS of stuff to choose from, 2) it's usually in multiples of the same thing (9 shovels, 15 socket wrenches, 20 hammers, 5 table saws, 50lbs of nails, etc), and 3) with multiples like that prices tend to be cheaper than a typical auction.

In fact, some of my best hauls have come from auctions like this.  However, not all horder auctions tend to be clean auctions though, as some come from people who are what I would call the "dirty" kind.  IE, they horde merely due to mental illness and not due to a requisite need for all the items they collect.  These are the kind of people who save every magazine and scrap of paper, every bottle, can, and broken soup bowl.  There was one a couple years ago over in a city not far from where I live that took the auctioneer almost two weeks and two huge dumpster fulls just to clean out the house and find anything useful to sell.  The rest was in good shape and plentiful.

The same was true of another I ran into a couple cities away where the entire barn and house were stacked to the ceiling with every kind of imaginable thing, with little more than narrow walking paths through the piles of junk and old papers that littered the place.  If the place had caught on fire it would have burned for two weeks given all the papers and other stuff crammed into it.  Either that or the flames would have been a mile high.  It got so bad during the auction that they were selling piles of stuff for a few bucks and moving along really fast just to get everything sold, which when spread out, covered nearly an acre.

Yes, an acre.  And they didn't even get everything out of the buildings either.  Some rooms were just sold as is, all contents included, and you were responsible for cleaning them out and taking everything with you.  Oddly enough I came away with four nice items, but it took a lot of patient waiting to get those.  So those kind of auctions are quite nice and you can walk away with a lot of great stuff if you're in the right place at the right time.

But the one that tops them all so far has to be the auction I described at the beginning.  It covered a four acre property and took three separate sales just to complete.  Three sales!  Most others only took one, even the biggest of them.  That's how much stuff this guy had.  Two houses, three barns, a mobile home, and half a dozen other car shelters and various structures worth of stuff.  And everything was in multiples.

For example, between the three sales I think I counted over two hundred trash cans.  Yes, trash cans, and they were full of stored stuff too.  And that's not the worst part.  The guy apparently was forced by his family to downsize (understandable given what I saw) and get rid of most everything he had.  What blew my mind, and made me realize how much of a mental horder he was (mental meaning he had the mental disorder of hording, as described above, and not the need to horde as required by his circumstances) came when he pulled his car around.

It was filled from from to back, floor to ceiling with junk.  Literally junk.  Even the passenger's seat was junk.  Probably enough to fill a 2 yard dumpster to overflowing.  That's pure mental hording.  But that's not really why I wrote this post.  I wrote it to make a point.  What I wanted to do was to provide an example of good vs bad hording, ultimately culminating in a single question.

Are you a mental horder?

In many ways we all are.  We collect lots of things every day that really have no useful purpose except to clutter up our lives.  We horde our treasures like a dragon hordes his gold, with no real need for most of what we have.  Now that's not to say that there aren't good uses for much of what we collect.  Someone who has a toll collection or a wood shop can probably point to every single item in their collection and denote a use for it.  Or at least a perceived use.

Why do I say "perceived"?  Well, let me ask you this.  What is most important in this word?  God, or man?  The simple and correct answer is God every time.  Then why are we stacking up treasures for ourselves on this world?  Why are we mentally hording junk we don't need?  If it's not used for service to God or the edification of others, why do we have it?  Why is it cluttering up our lives?

Now I'm not saying that everything we have is bad, or "horded".  Far from it.  What I'm saying is, have we stopped at any moment and really, closely looked at what we have and determined if we really need it.  If it serves no direct or indirect purpose to the kingdom of God, why do we have it in the first place?

Matthew 6:19 (KJV) - "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:"

Why are we wasting our time and God given resources building up treasures for ourselves here on Earth that will some day be burned away, when we should instead be building up the kingdom of God and laying up treasures for ourselves in heaven?

2 Peter 3:10-11 (KJV) - "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,"

Providing for your family and fellow believers is one thing.  Hording for selfish personal gain is not.  When Christ was on this world, what did He own?  Nothing.  He borrowed a tomb, he borrowed numerous boats, he borrowed houses, and so much more.  Plus, how often did you see that His father gave Him everything He needed?  And how are we any greater than He who was fully provided for.

What about that expensive house you have that's mortgaged to the hilt?  What about that car?  Or the huge stacks of credit card debt just to fill your closet with things you only wear a few times then discard?  What about those expensive golf clubs, or the fancy new blender on your counter?  What about that 52" TV in your room, or that expensive monthly satellite TV or internet bill?

Isn't it time to stop hording the things of this world for your own selfish purposes and start either getting rid of them, or turning them entirely to God's service?  Christ set an example for us that we don't need the things of this world to do God's work.  They're helpful and they allow us to do things we couldn't do without them.  But they should not be our primary focus.  People should.  And with that I would say that the greatest and only treasure we should seek after is people's souls.

We should be winning people to Christ, saving them from the fires of Hell that will consume them if they are not snatched from them.  But to do that we must cast off the mortal encumbrances of this world and seek to do all for God.  Because if we don't do that soon, God may find it necessary to strip them from us, and then what will we have?  Nothing but great loss and even greater shame before God on judgment day.

So stop your worldly, mental hording, and start working for God, using all He has given you to win souls to Him in whatever way He calls you to do.