Sin Hoarders

There is a new show on A&E called Hoarders. It highlights people's houses due to the clutter and lack of purging.

I watch and am amazed and disgusted by what I see.

These people are living in filth. There is expired, rotting food that they have grown emotional attachments to. They have become so accustomed to the sight and smells of their house and property, that they don't even realize the grotesqueness of it. They find dead animals that died in the rubble. There are bugs. There is dirt. There is nowhere to move without tripping over something. There is feces on the floor...both human and animal. There is a need to fill the void of emptiness with stuff and there is nowhere to put any of it. Hoarders do not want people inside their house. They are ashamed and embarrassed....yet don't see a way out, so the pattern continues.

As a spectator, I watch and wonder why it is so hard to throw away garbage. That even as the trash is being bagged up and brought outside to a truck, these hoarders run after the bags, only to have to sift through it and make sure there isn't something of worth left. I have yet to see someone not take something completely worthless back into the house....like it's a treasure...when it is obvious to everyone else that it's not.

It is sad to watch. The hoarders are receiving very secular help. There is no Christ mentioned...no mention of sin...and no mention of the only real way to be redeemed.

My reaction to this show is one of pride. I look at my house and how uncluttered I keep it and smugly think to myself how I would never let my house look like that.

But, the more I thought about it....the more I realized that I hoard my sin. I don't let anyone see the clutter of my heart and the blackness of my sin. I have rotting sin that is so filthy and rancid, yet I don't smell the nastiness of it. I hold it tight to my chest like it's a treasure.

If someone were to be able to see what is really inside of me, they would have the same reaction to me, as I have when watching the show....yet, we all look the same inside.

Without Christ, we don't see our sin for what it really is. We are blinded as these hoarders are. We don't smell the rot. We don't see the blackness. We embrace ugliness...and don't even realize that we are doing it.

This is not how it needs to be.

There was one man that was pure and clean....the man, Christ Jesus. He has made the only way available for full redemption of our hoarding.

The process of sanctification is an ongoing purging of our sin. This is sin that we hoard and pile up with every ounce of our being. We don't want to let it go....but Christ makes it possible to let it go...and makes us want to let it go. The closer we get to Him, the more we realize how sick and deep in our sin we really are.

As I envelope myself in Christ through Scripture, I see my sin for what it is. There really are no words to describe the ugliness.

There are still times that I don't want to let it go....that I am struggling against my sinful nature. I am a work in progress...but I will never be left to do the cleaning by myself.

"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1:6

I take joy that one day, there will be no more cleaning and purging. There will come a day when all will be pure and clean.

Until that day, I will remain overwhelmed and thankful that Christ took the wrath for my sin...and with Him leading the way, I will strive to be more like Him.