Trading up.

Did you ever read the Peanuts comic?
There was this character – I don’t remember his name – who used to be always surrounded by flies (he’s the one on the left… obviously).

My wife would claim I have a similar ‘problem’ with scraps of paper.
Personally, I don’t consider it a ‘problem’, but she goes nuts when she finds them lying around the house!

What really winds her up is that she has no idea whether these scraps of paper are useful or not. What is more she knows that I would be just as clueless but she can’t just throw them out just in case.

For example, about my person right now (i.e. on my desk, in my bag or pockets) I have a number of aged Post-It notes, each listing a different number of CDs I may want to buy. I’ll keep these. Here’s a scrap of paper with screening times for a bunch of films that are no longer showing. This can be binned. Out it goes.
What else is there, a Pay & Display parking ticket with someone’s mobile number written on it. I’m not sure whose it is now, so why have I kept it!? Bin it.
There are also a few church news sheets with some stuff that I jotted down during the service. Some of it I can no longer read since it was badly written in the first place (I don’t even remember writing it!). Some of it is much clearer and reminds me of what God had been saying to me in the meetings. Some of it can be kept some of it can go. I should really go through these more often :o)
What have we here? A handful of Post-It notes (various sizes) all stuck together. Some of them have ideas for the next FUSION on them, others have doodles (of what is anyone’s guess), and a there’s also a list of fonts that I like the look of! These could be useful so I’ll put all these back in my bag. I can begin to see why Ruth gets annoyed when she finds some of these!

I also have twenty or so pages torn out of old copies of Word For Today. As I flick through them it now seems a complete mystery as to why I kept them in the first place, but some are absolute jewels. As relevant to me today as when I tore them out.
One such torn page I re-discovered the other day dated back a year or so. I read it again and was surprised by how poignant it seemed after Tuesday’s post.

This is what I read:
If you are serious about discipleship, here are three requirements:
1) deny yourself …
2) take up your cross …
3) follow Him. Too often we take God's presence for granted because He said He would never leave us. But He also said: “You did not choose me...I chose you” (John 15:16). It is not God's job to follow you, it is your job to follow Him! When you do, it will cost you, change you, and challenge you. Sometimes you will go through valleys, other times you will stand with Him on the mountaintop. You must be willing to follow Him anywhere, any time, under any conditions; that is the deal! Still want to be a disciple of Jesus?

Reading this reminded me of the closing tracks on David Crowder’s latest CD.
“Dying is a strange concept to live by. Yet that is what we are called to; forsaking life to gain it. A close friend of mine suggests we look at it as trading up; discarding our tiny self-centred story for a grander, eternal one.” – David Crowder

I hope all of this justifies my scrap paper collection in my wife’s eyes. I doubt it will though.