Clearing out the clutter

A couple of years ago, I moved to the Washington, DC, area.  Well, “moved” really overstates the case, because I didn’t really move away from my home in the Midwest.  Rather, I moved toward a job in the East.  I suppose I was hedging my bets:  I didn’t really know how this would all work out.  So, I left my home pretty much intact (“just in case”), and filled up my car with the  essentials needed for outfitting an apartment.  Now, after a couple of years, I think I’m pretty settled here.  Consequently, I have decided to rent my house.  Now, I really do have to move out of it, and that process will eat up my summer vacation.  It was with that prospect before me that I read my friend Bill Cotton’s Memo to Preachers this past week.  In he quotes Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline.  Bill is particularly interested in a list in Foster’s book that Bill says can help us find our way to the Kingdom of God.  Seems to me that this list is also a pretty good one for a congregation thinking about resources, or a family seeking the basics, or someone sorting through the accumulation of things in her house:   

Learn to enjoy things without owning them.

Develop an appreciation for nature.

Avoid the buy-now-pay-later schemes.

Let what you say be simply yes or no.

Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others.

Reject anything that keeps you from seeking first the kingdom.

Buy things for their usefulness rather than for status.

Reject anything that becomes an addiction for you.

Give things away.

Refuse to be propagandized by the custodian of modern gadgetry.

Seek the maximum of well being with the minimum of consumption.

What does this list bring to your mind?