So when the opportunity arose to work with World Relief Canada, it was something my whole family supported me accepting – even though it required us to uproot from BC and move across the country to Ontario.  It is a sobering experience to have everything you own put into containers for shipping to your new home.  When your possessions are spread out around your home it is decorative and beautiful and comfortable.  When they are packed into cardboard boxes and put into larger metal boxes and put on a truck – you start to realize that it is “stuff”, and in some cases, dare I say it – “junk”.  

 

I remember when my father died, my brother and I had the arduous task of cleaning out his house.  It was a mixture of deep sadness because of the circumstances, warm feelings as we relived childhood memories by going through keepsakes, and utter dismay as we uncovered things like 12 plastic garbage bags filled with plastic screw tops from 2 litre bottles of diet coke.  I have no idea why my father would ever drink that much coke, much less why he would be compelled to keep/collect the tops to all those bottles in yard waste bags in closets around the house.  It became quite the running joke with my brother and I, and somewhere in my mind I laughingly swore that I would never do that.

 

Then I decided to move from Langley, BC to Markham, ON and it required me to clean out my house.  It has been a long time since I undertook a move so large that I couldn’t do it with some buddies and a U-Haul truck, but this move was definitely going to be more than I was capable of – so I called some professionals.  I had 3 companies come quote on the privilege of loading my stuff, driving it across the country and unloading it for me.  You cannot imagine my surprise when I found out that they wanted to charge me more than the gross domestic product of many small countries.  I was absolutely certain they were out of their collective minds, but I have been assured by many people that what they were quoting was, in fact, industry standard rates.  Those rates, it seems, are based primarily on weight.  Turns out I have a lot of stuff – or my stuff is ridiculously dense.  Either way, the price was way outside my comfort zone.  And so began what has become known as “the great purge of 2010.”  

 

My wife and I became brutal in our culling of stuff.  And as I began opening boxes and chests that were hidden away in our closets and garage, I came to the horrifying realization that I was probably 5 years away from starting to keep plastic lids and paper wrapped straws in plastic bags.  I had been “saving” things that I had no business keeping.  In one box I found every paper I had written during my years of higher education.  Now, I will be the first to extol the virtue of education, and I like to think that I was an above average paper writer.  However, why I thought anyone would ever be interested in reading my regurgitation of a freshman level 18 century English literature professors ramblings is beyond even my ability to explain.  Yet, there they were.  72 pounds of them.  Yes, I actually weighed them.  But even I couldn’t stomach reading them before they were recycled.

 

Once we completed the great purge of 2010, our possessions had undergone a weight loss that would make Jenny Craig proud.  3000 pounds lighter was the consensus by the companies that came to re-quote our move.  One and a half TONS of stuff that, when push came to shove, we were willing to get rid of.  I was both shocked and ashamed.  Shocked that I had been carrying that stuff around for so many years for no real reason, and ashamed that I had allowed myself to become so enmeshed in the mindset of “needing stuff.”

 

So when I was asked to put something together for WRC’s “Poverty Perspective” I wasn’t sure that I could speak from that perspective without first “confessing”.  We live in such a culture of abundance.  Sometimes I think we ought to have a 12 step program for it.  “Hi, my name is Eric and it’s been 3 days since I bought something that I really didn’t need.”

 

There are so many people that live on less than what my coffee cost this morning.  I am actually happy to be back working in an organization that forces me to think about poverty and the needs of others rather than focus on the petty wants of my life.

 

Most of our stuff we were able to give to others that actually needed it or to organizations that would actually use it, but in all honesty there was too much that just got thrown away.  It was a humbling experience for me.  I realized that what I had spent on things that I was throwing away could have changed the lives of people forever in many places around the world.  I pray that I don’t fall into that trap again.

 

As a reminder, my wife and I decided to start by making a simple choice to give $7/week to the work of World Relief Canada.  It’s $30 a month that I won’t spend on things I don’t actually need.  

 

 

How about you?  When was the last time that you had to take a serious look at your “stuff”?  Why not join me in my quest to never have to have a “great purge” ever again.  How many lives could you change simply by giving from your excess?     

 

Join me in making a difference in the lives of people and communities around the world.