I recently posed the question, “What’s in your hand?” The idea is that what God has placed in your hands…skills, desires, opportunities…can be used by the Lord to accomplish His will in your life.

The other day I was going through some boxes of old things, saying to myself, “Why do I hang onto this stuff?!” But at the same time, I came across a couple of things that got my mind going. I found a little vinyl sticker from a radio station in the city of Kupong on the island of West Timor…in Indonesia. I had not been there in almost twenty years. I remembered the husband and wife running that station from their home…with the radio tower right in their front yard. I recalled their dedication and passion for this tool to share God’s hope with the people on that island. The husband has died, but his wife continues the radio ministry. Faithful. I’m glad I held on to that little memento. It reminds me of some of the Lord’s great servants and how they continue to use today’s powerful tools to spread the Good News to the lost.

Digging deeper, I also came across a bar of soap, still covered in its distinctive wrapper. Printed there were the words “SS United States.” That is the name of an ocean liner built in the early 1950s that was the flagship of American cruise ships. In 1959 at age thirteen I was on the SS United States with the award-winning and highly acclaimed Texas Boys Choir, heading for seven weeks in Europe to sing at some of the world’s most iconic concert venues.

I dug deeper in that box and found a few other artifacts from that fantastic trip. And my heart reminded me how God used those special experiences in my life to instill in me several qualities…such as a standard of excellence, of the effort needed to accomplish that level of performance, and a sense of what could be done with twenty-six rather ordinary boys who were willing to work hard to accomplish a goal…and reap the rewards.

Are there things in your storage room that can be valuable to you today? Not valuable in a monetary sense, but for what they represent traits that have been instilled in you. What do you hold on to? What ideas take up space in the storage room of your mind and life? Are they things that can give you a sense of the work of the Lord? Things that can remind you of His hand in your life? Something that shows God’s faithfulness to guide you and meet your needs?

In Joshua 4, an unusual event is detailed. As the children of Israel finally crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land after forty years of wandering, Joshua asked the people to do something important. He gave instructions to twelve men:

Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.

Joshua 4:3 NLT

I’m sure they wondered what their leader was doing. Joshua soon explained:

“…We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”

Joshua 4:6-7 NLT

The Lord wants all of us to remember His goodness, His faithfulness, His leadership in our lives. And I think He wants us to pass these things on to our children and future generations.

OK… many of the items in those boxes I opened and went through were junk, not worth holding onto. But the Lord used a bar of soap and an old bumper sticker to remind me of His guidance and His faithfulness in my life.

What’s in your storage room?

God’s best,