Notebook Hoarding Part 2

I have mentioned before it seems that I collect journals.  I have also been on this bent of getting a particular type of notebook that is no longer manufactured and it has become my goal to find and buy them at Target because Target is the only store that still has them.   But am I becoming a notebook hoarder?  Ah, yes, I believe I am. 

The other night I did something that I rarely do and that is plopping myself down in front of the TV and watching for several hours.  It wasn't even a good TV night but as I was flipping Hoarders was on and like a train wreck, you can't stop watching.  Sad stories of people who have let stuff and not even good stuff take over their house.  There's the obligatory shot of bugs and mouse poop and wall and ceilings caving in.  The family is usually at odds with one another and there is at least two or more breakdowns in the cleaning frenzy.  Last night, there was one family that had the chaos and crisis going on, but it wasn't typical.  The hoarding was rather organized, it was just too much organization.  The woman had everything in plastic storage bins and when it was all said and done, she had over 3000 of them in her home.  She told them she was addicted to books.  Oh, this is getting a little too personal and she liked magazines but the Dr told her it was more like she was addicted to shopping.  Everything in storage containers stacked to the ceiling.  Her relationship with her daughter was falling apart and the whole cleanup resulted in 16 things thrown away and a couple of things to be given away but the woman kept all that stuff.  She knew she needed to relinquish control but when she was confronted in almost any way, she would throw up her hands, tell them to throw it all away and would walk off.  But of course she didn't mean it.  It didn't seem like her yard was filled to overflowing and her house looked neat.  They didn't show a horrible, dirty bathroom.  No matter how organized or how clean, she still was a hoarder and couldn't let it go.  She chose her stuff over her daughter and grandchildren.  This episode was from Season 4 Episode 15.  You might be thinking why have you told us all this info?  Is there a reason?  Not really, I guess, but this lady as organized as she was is still a hoarder, she was just a tad neater than most.  She's not hoarding dead cats or human excrement, just papers, books and magazines.  So no matter how you clean it up and store it stacked to the ceiling, the underlying theme is, she is till labeled a hoarder.  Some people live very messy lives, existing without knowing the Lord.  It is obvious they need intervention and help.  There are others who live their lives without knowing the Lord and their life has the appearance of a cleaned up, neatly organized life and nothing on the outside even suggests anything is amiss inside that heart.  On Hoarders the challenge is difficult and aftercare is a must.  Some break through and see the light, others welcome the change for a time and then go back to the way they lived before.  Then there are those who are almost unreachable.  I think that transfers over into Christianity.  We look at people who live amidst junk, worthless stuff and it is easier to help them because their needs are great but we have resources and a way to help them.  Those who can contain their need and hide behind wealth and status and privilege, we are inadequate, to help meet their needs in ourselves because their immediate needs are deeper and we are not able or given enough time to scrutinize what's needed.  A loaf of bread and a can of beans aren't going to be the key that opens the lock of their lives.  Many years ago when we first joined the U Club, I asked Cecilia Talley how I could share Jesus with my up and out friends.  She told me it would take time but to be a friend and since I didn't run in that social crowd, she told me I could give an ear and really listen, to be kind.  It took a lot of time for them to trust me.  At Christmas I would bake Christmas cookies with my mother to give to them.  The key to unlock the door of acceptance finally was a Waterman pen that Roy had given me for Christmas.  These ladies didn't know who I was or where I came from or how all of the sudden I was a part of their world.  At the end of tennis matches, we would always pull out our calendars and make future games.  This was back in the dark ages of real paper calendars and pens.  I offered my pen to a lady who hadn't brought one and I remember this as clearly today as then.  She looked at my pen and then looked at me and kind of nodded to the others like...she's ok, she has a "pen."  That pen opened the doors to be more than a tennis player at the U Club but it opened the door to become friends and share the love and rescuer of my life, Jesus. 

I am thrilled that one of my friends who lives in NW Houston told me last night she had found four of my notebooks at her Target and I have a friend in Dallas as soon as I send her a picture of the Mead Decorative Fashion notebook, she will keep an eye out for some.  Roy said something this morning that was funny, I found some glass bottles of Diet CheerWine at Rocket Fizz and gave him a six pack of his favorite soda for Valentine's.  Roy said, I didn't get you a gift, I really didn't know what you might like...and then he added, I know, notebooks but I think he couldn't get them in good conscience since I think he is about to have an intervention with me.