Is there anything I really can't live without?
I have asked myself that question various times in my life - and received different answers!
When I married Jim and left my home and family, I had to reduce my worldly goods to one suitcase and a heavy box. The box contained mostly my kitchenware that had belonged to my mother, and so held sentimental value. There was even a kitchen scale with the heavy weights in pounds and ounces. I no longer used it - but I couldn't part with it. I left a lot of stuff behind, but I was newly married and in love, so hardly gave it a second thought.
After six years in Senegal it was once again time to pack up and move countries - and continents. I thought I didn't have much left in the way of stuff that I was holding onto, but when it came time to part with my food mixer, which had also belonged to my mom - I resisted. How could I let this last vestige of connection with her go? It was a wrestle, but there was a lady there who loved to bake and could really do with a food mixer, and wanted to in fact make her living with it. How could I refuse? (Yes, I left my scale as well!)
I must have gone through my stuff four times, each time being ruthless with myself, and each time thinking "Surely I can't live without this?" In the end there was so little left, I really didn't care if it followed me to France or not. I felt free.
One of my latest wrestles has been over food. Now surely that you can't live without? Having been on the skinny side for so many years of my life, I honestly thought that if I went a whole day without food I would surely faint and die. But having gained a few excess pounds I felt braver to try. So God dared me to fast for four days. I took up the dare. I was totally astonished by the realization that I actually don't need to eat three square meals a day. God has so deisgned our bodies that we can go a lot longer than we think without food. I felt free in a whole new way.
There is a great scene in the last Harry Potter movie that depicts this. Harry and his two friends have been camping for days with hardly any food. They arrive at Alberforce Dumbledore's home and their host puts out a tray of food. Ron and Hermione fall on it, stuffing the food in their starving mouths. But Harry stands back and calmly carries on a conversation with Alberforce about their mission, seemingly unaware of the food. The book explains that because Harry had been fed only sporadically by his cruel foster parents he had become used to going without. While Ron and Hermione came from good homes and were used to regular meals.
I was really struck by Harry's Christlike attitude towards food! It didn't own him. He was master of his body. Reminiscent of Jesus at the well when he asked the woman for a drink of water - and there is every indication he never got it. And when his disciples return and urge him to eat something he says this: "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Wow!! Oh to be that free from our fleshly appetites!
So is there anything I really can't live without? I think that would be chocolate!
