On Having and Being

I like STUFF.

Not for the sake of having it, but there are certain material things I enjoy.  I collect comic books, certain LEGO sets, and Disney pins.  They add to my life in different ways.  Comic books remind me of my dad and the stories, when well written and drawn, are a great diversion from the stresses of life.  I love LEGOs and especially the ones with comic characters, Star Wars, and now The Lord of the Rings.  It’s fun to build something concrete since most of my life deals with things in the abstract or the untouchable.  And I love Disney pin trading!  Certain pins remind me of times I’ve had with my family, others remind me of when I used to work at the Park (Disneyland that is), and I like the camaraderie of the folks who collect.  They are for the most part a great group of people.  But in each of these hobbies, there are some people who turn it into an obsession.  To them, having it all and having it first makes their life meaningful and I think that any time we define our lives by the material things we possess or have we are in grave danger of losing our souls.  We become fixated as much as if we were taking a drug and end up with that same distorted view of life – that it all amounts to STUFF.  We know it doesn’t.  Watch this clip below.  I think you’ll hear some interesting ideas.

The clip above is from the show CSI and when I saw it, it really made me think.

It was from an episode about a woman who suffered from disposophobia or compulsive hoarding.  If you’ve even seen someone like this, or you’ve watched one of those reality shows about it, you know how bad it can be.  Just STUFF everywhere!  Just this constant accumulation of STUFF!  Piles and piles of it in every nook and cranny possible.  And it becomes obsessive to the point where the hoarder doesn’t even realize what’s going on.  They just keep getting more STUFF that most of us would consider junk or trash, but for them there is meaning to it all.  It becomes ridiculous how the hoarder begins to justify every scrap of paper and every piece of food.  It just makes me wonder what in the world drives people to this point.  And then I watch TV.  Or read a paper.  And I can see how we are constantly bombarded by the message that we need more STUFF.  We really do have a society focused on material things.  Our identity is shaped by our possessions.  Our social status, our sense of identity, our acceptance into social circles – all often has to do with “things.”

As the clip said, the philosopher Erich Fromm had a theory that we have two basic human orientations: having and being.

Having and being.  It does seem that our culture is dominated by the “having” orientation, doesn’t it?  But as Ray said in the clip, it doesn’t have to be that way.  WE don’t have to be that way.  To change it, we have to learn to get into the habit of giving, on focusing not on how much we get but on how much we give to others – and not necessarily giving material things either but giving our time and our talents and our resources away for free.  Because by giving, we get rid of the barrier of STUFF between us and God.  We let go of the material world and instead embrace God’s world.  And that’s where God wants us to be.  He wants us to live in HIS world instead of the material world.  He wants us to focus on our relationship with Him and with those around us and that’s hard to do when we are surrounded by a barrier of stuff.  That’s why God talks about all the time.  That’s why Jesus says it’s so hard for the rich to get into Heaven.  Not because they have money, but because they keep getting blocked by all the STUFF in their way.  I’m convinced that the story of the rich young man in the Bible (Mark 10:17-25) is told to us for exactly this reason – to help us understand that the material world gets in between us and God.  That’s why Christ tells us to get rid of it!  So we can learn to rely on God instead of our STUFF.  If the world were filled with people primarily focused on “being” instead of “having” wouldn’t this be a better place?

There’s nothing wrong with STUFF in and of itself.  Like there’s nothing wrong with money in and of itself.  But when we let it take over our lives, we risk the things that are truly important – our family, our friends, our very relationship with God.  All for a bunch of stuff we can’t take with us in the end.