I am going out on a limb here with this. I know it will probably sound nutty, but bear with me for a few moments. I have a hangup about pockets. Its not that I don't like them, or don't use them (I tend to over use them...). I just think that we use pockets as an excuse to hoard.
Take the average purse out there... It usually has between three and seven pockets (depending on the manufacturer and model). The average purse is intended to hold less than five pounds of stuff, yet if you actually take a chance to look inside of the average purse, you would be amazed and perhaps mortified at what you find in there... I mean, mine weighs about 12 lbs. I keep cleaning it out, but it has never weighed less than 7 lbs. at a single time unless you count the day I bought it.
Why so heavy you ask? Well, I just can't live without me checkbook, my phone, my tablet of paper, my extra brush, my breath mints, my mirror, lip gloss, neosporin, bandaides, hair pins, barrets, gum, pens/pencils, my coin purse, my drivers license, the brass casing from my uncle's funeral 21 gun salute, keys and extra keys, body spray, breath spray, toothettes, tylenol, motrin, and a toy for my niece to play with at church... sometimes I even stuff a book or three in there and my MP3 player or my CD player.... Its all stuff I am going to need (at some point or another... not like right now...).
My work uniform is sort of the same way. I usually have between 2-5 pockets in my uniform, and I tend to stuff them all full of supplies I may need at one point or another. Mostly with pens though, since I seem to be frightened that I may run out of ink during my shift. (Its not like I will not be able to borrow a pen from the nurse's desk, or take one from the break room table in my office, but I guess irrationality is a quirk of human nature.)
Men and women alike seem to have this urge to fill thier pockets with stuff for no other reason than because they have pockets. The deeper the pocket is, the more stuff we tend to cram in there. We tend to forget that a pocket (or purse for that matter) is not a suitecase. No matter how hard we try, we aren't going to fit all we need in them. Eventually we will find out something is missing when we get into a jam.
We are so ingrained in stuffing our pockets, that we forget that sometimes our clothing fits better if we aren't carrying around 10 lbs. of useless things. We forget, ladies, that our backs won't hurt so much if we take a few things out of those heavy bags we carry around. Our spiritual life is like that too.
We tend to keep things with us because we never know when they will become useful, forgetting that God called us to depend on Him. No wonder we are staggering around groaning under our heavy loads, we haven't taken the time to empty our spiritual pockets. We haven't loosened all or our burdens. We haven't laid everything at the feet of Jesus, because we keep stuffing it in our pockets.
Are you really going to need them in Heaven? Will those things we keep close to us in our spiritual pockets so dear to us that we cannot let them go? Jesus said "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11: 28-30)
Why don't we do that, and as we go, empty our pockets.
It doesn't gain us anything to hoard those things. Let them go, and let Jesus take control.
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