I lost it before I could integrate it into my life. And I’m so glad I did!

In October of 1971 I boarded a Pan Am 747 in what was then called Saigon for the return flight home from Viet Nam. I had escorted eight Teen Challenge graduates to join ranks with the Army’s Deft (Drug Education Field Teams) program. They were to lend their stories of the effects of drugs on their lives to the presentations by Army personnel at bases throughout the country.

The Viet Cong were sending massive amounts of drugs, including heroin, destined for the soldiers of the United States. The consequences of drugs in anyone’s system do not make for better soldiers. The addition of men whose lives had been decimated by drugs before Jesus changed them was powerful through their personal testimonies.

I had been there for two weeks and was now on my 7000 mile trip home. As the flight attendant closed the door I realized I had left a souvenir of my trip in the boarding area. It was an authentic Vietnamese string instrument, my proof of having been to Viet Nam during the war!

The bad new? I thought about it several times during the next twelve hours. The good news? I’ve hardly thought about it since and haven’t had to carefully pack it to move 21 times between that trip and my shower this morning when I briefly remembered it.

In this stage of my life I would describe that ‘priceless’ artifact as stuff of which I’ve had a mountain of over the years. It’s absolutely life altering to discover than you can get rid of stuff and still be happy… actually happier!

Can I encourage you to look around your present space. Start in your garage. Gaze upward and reflect on that camping tent which hasn’t been used for three decades. Would it ruin your life if it were not there? Now do this experiment in every room in your home and I believe you’ll admit at some point that ‘less is more.’

Less stuff equals more room, more time and if the stuff could be sold… even more finances.

Feel what it’s like to move through life unencumbered – free to move easily in God’s directions and grace.

God satisfies us with things we really need.

^“Isn’t it true that our hands were empty when we came into the world,

and when we leave this world our hands will be empty again?

 Because of this, food and clothing is enough to make us content.”

 I Timothy 6:7,8 TPT