A recent visit to a local thrift store provided an unexpected lesson. While shopping for a specific project in the rear of the store, I struck up a conversation with a fast-moving, wiry 65-year-old worker named Michael. With his long frizzy hair and frenetic work pace, he struck me as a fusion of Bob Ross and Richard Simmons. After he helped me, I asked if he ever got tired of all the donated “stuff” that filled the store.
“Every day!” he laughed. “But I’m used to it. I did this work back in the 80s. When I saw this store, I told them what I could do. No other store has their furniture lined up like this. I’ll put out 200 new items in a couple hours. Nobody else here can do that.”
But the most striking part wasn’t his work ethic—it was his perspective. Throwing both arms out for emphasis, he told me, “I come in here every day, and it’s all mine. All this stuff, it’s mine.” He explained that he thinks that way everywhere he goes. Everything is his, yet none of it is his responsibility. Other people take care of it all for him.
I objected, “But you can’t take it home without paying for it.”
He just smiled. “In my mind, while I’m here, it’s mine. Anything I want.” He admitted he had well-off relatives who would buy him anything if he asked. Yet he has no compulsion to hoard, and no attachment to things. “It’s all just stuff.”
Michael may not know or quote scripture, but he has an abundance mindset. He lives as though he lacks nothing. As someone trying to shed excess possessions, I found Michael’s perspective inspiring. It challenged me that someone who is likely not even a believer lives in such freedom from preoccupation with the material.
Meanwhile many of us Bible-reading Christians struggle greatly to believe what it tells us:
“Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
“The LORD is my shepherd; I have everything I need.” (Psalm 23:1 GNT)
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11).
“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
God has promised to take care of us because we are His. If Michael can walk through life convinced he has all he needs without clinging to possessions, how much more should we, who know God as Father and generous Giver, trust Him? Maybe it’s time we stopped living like orphans and started trusting like heirs.
Jesus said He came that we might have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). But He also warned, “Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)
Real abundance is not in “stuff.” It is in Jesus Himself (Hebrews 13:5-6).
Another great reminder! God is my supplier