A homeless man is having a yard sale outside of my apartment window… he is selling all of my belongings.
Now I will explain:
In advance of finishing graduate school, I have been applying to jobs all over the Midwest in the hope of entering full-time ministry. Because I didn't know where I would be living, or what I would need in the living arrangement, I didn't make plans for what to do with all of the STUFF I have accumulated in the last five years.
Somewhat unexpectedly I got a job REALLY close to my original home (like 1 mile). This is a blessing for many reasons but specifically because it allows me to move in with my parents until I can process my loan-repayment paperwork and qualify for the young-youth-minister-welcomed-into-poverty-repayment-plan.
I have moved/sold most of my furniture in the apartment, but the rest of the stuff now seems like "junk". My parents have no need for 7 mis-matched place settings, or for my take-out container tupperware collection (among other things). Since I didn't make a plan for any of this stuff I have been throwing it all away. It's not worth anything to me. In fact, I have complained all year that I lived in such as small space and could not entertain and get "nicer things". It was somewhat cathartic to throw out too… like I was shedding baggage before starting a new adventure.
On my last trip to the dumpster a man approached me and offered to sell me four plates for $0.10 each. I declined and told him that I had no need for plates. I then noticed that they were the same plates that I had thrown out earlier. The man offered to show me the rest of his items, and I looked across the concrete ledge under my apartment's window and saw my frying-pan with chipping teflon, my food stained Tupperware, my floor rugs, my ice cream scoop with cracked handle, and my worn cutting boards-- all for sale.
"Some whack job kid must be moving and throwing all of this good stuff out!" the man explained. I was stunned, I didn't know what to say, I couldn't admit to being the wasteful person he was accusing me of being. I live in a pretty poor neighborhood and yet seeing the poverty of my neighbors didn't give me an appreciation for the blessings that I had.
I was able to watch from my window as he sold my things for very low prices (my frying pan earned him 75 cents). I took down two more boxes of items and invited the man to sell them, I think he later understood that I had been the one throwing it all away. I felt bad for him, but he looked me straight in the eye like he felt bad for me. It was a humbling experience.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. -Mark 10:21-22
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