Leah and I had a long day yesterday, but we got a lot accomplished…yard mowed (me), garage cleaned out (me), rearranging living room (both of us), and cleaning out Lexi’s room (Leah). At the end of the day we sat down to watch TV and turned on a show we had never seen before called, Hoarding: Buried Alive. According to wikipedia, hoarding is “a mental disorder marked by an obsessive need to acquire (and failure to use or discard) a significant amount of possessions, even if the items are worthless, hazardous, or unsanitary.” We could not stop watching the stories of these people whose lives had been ruined by their years of accumulating things. While watching the show, I kept wondering why these people just didn’t clean up their house and move on with life, but with each story there was a significant or series of significant events which contributed to their hoarding behavior. One lady shared how she had been raised by an very mean aunt who, at one point, took everything the girl owned and burned it in a barrel and made her watch. This past experience caused her to cling tightly to the things she owned in the present.
Watching this show last night reminded me that our past experiences shape the person we become. Although our past does not necessarily excuse our future actions, it does help explain why we do what we do. Allow me to take this one step further. I believe it is also important that we remain patient when a person struggles with behavior foreign to us. Even though I do not struggle with hoarding, I am not better than the person who does struggle with it…I’ve got my own problems.
Those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ must learn to be patient with those who are in the process of changing because change is a lifelong process, not an overnight sensation.
