Tidbits to Collect

What do you collect? What little tidbits are gathering dust around your abode or office?

There are the obvious collections out there … baseball or football (or Pokemon) cards … stamps … Beanie Babies … books … shoes … and others. My mother-in-law collected bells (her married name was Bell) and salt & pepper shakers. I’ve known collectors of bells, spoons, hymnals, leaves, and more.

I’ve collected things through the years.

• There was the college/university sweatshirts (now it’s just my alma mater – Dallas Baptist University.)
• There were the VHS, especially Disney … then that turned to DVD … then lastly Blue Ray … but now it’s all on Amazon or Apple TV library.
• Don’t forget the books, thousands of books … the GNP of a small country invested into books — and now, with probably 80-90% of those books given away, my shelves are trimmed way down. I had 2-3 pallets full of boxes of books when I graduated post grad studies — and while I still have books, I also have lots of ebooks. (oh yeah, apple audio books too!)
• I did do Beanie Babies, thinking they could be my son’s college fund — but now, they are five plastic bins of … toys for the grandkids.
• LPs — cassette tapes for a while — then CDs — now again, LPs (but did you know most modern LPs are just the digital recording put on vinyl, not the same type of recording as classic LPs — bah, humbug.
• Christmas ornaments — mostly Peanuts.
• And one last one — rocks.

Rock? Yes, rocks. Every time I do a new hike on an untracked trail, I grab rock. Normally I try to remember at the apex, or the final destination of the trek. I label them and put them in an antique wooden bread/dough bowl. Scores of rocks, a stick or two, sand from Great Sand Dunes NP, a piece of metal from a downed airplane, tiny plastic pieces from Cowboy field at AT&T, a little vial of water (melted snow) from snow in Bad Lands NP, and even a concrete sliver from the Berlin Wall – yes, that wall that came down in the 90s. (and no, I haven’t been there, I got it from Ebay.)

I gather them, label them, and log them in my journal. I have a separate jar that has rocks from the my road trip with my wife.

Why? why are we compelled to collect things. Psychology Today gives several reasons we have urges to collect things …

• It brings us pleasure … some techno talk about our brains, but pleasure
• It brings pride … heightened by first time finds or locating rare pieces
• Some collect to add to their net worth … this is more of investing but still collecting
• It connects some to history … reminders of accomplishments or being part of a trail of a legacy – this connects us to the past and helps us be considerate of the legacy we pass on to future generations
• It brings intellectual satisfaction … a sense of accomplishment

in regards to most things, the collecting is more of the pleasure, the thrill, the satisfaction than the actual possession.

In hiking a trail … it’s the adventure of newness, the process of the trial to trek the trail, the sense of adventure … this is greater than accomplishment of completion.

I am not sure of the veracity of the final statement, but I understand it. I enjoy the thrill of something new … and if a rock can help me remember that, help draw on the pleasure gained by such accomplishments, than more power to it.

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The things we collect help remind us of something greater …

in worships, we participate in things and have things that point to something greater. Baptism is a picture of we are buried and raised to walk in newness of life. Communion reminds us of the new covenant. The cross points to forgiveness and grace. Stain glassed windows are of beauty and uniqueness, and letting God’s splendor of love shine through. These are but a few examples.

They point to something bigger, something greater. In the end, the items will be tossed, lost, given away, forgotten. But in the church, that which is greater is all that matters. They all point to God, and that is not just the greater, it is the greatest!

What do you collect?