If we are not careful, we can make a life and vocation of junk collecting. The junk of hurting hearts, the junk of adversarial encounters, the junk of contrary opinions, the junk of betrayals, the junk of failures, the junk of resistance, the junk of unworthiness, the junk of condemnation—junk, junk, junk, everywhere.  
 
I come from a long lineage of proud junk collectors. Most of them pile junk on junk, on more junk. They find it intolerable to throw anything away. It just piles up. When I go visit them I am overwhelmed; there are piles everywhere, collecting dust and rust. Often they purchase space to store their junk, but to use the word “storage” for their piles is an exaggerated complement. One of my relatives organizes his junk, but he has told me that it requires just about all of his left-over time to do so.  The point is, when you have junk in your life, you are either consumed with organizing it or you are consumed with collecting and navigating around it. What are you doing with your junk? Are you organizing junk or are you navigating around it? Not material junk, but the junk I mentioned in the first paragraph.
 
All the junk that comes into my life must be placed somewhere. I can keep it or I can give it to another. When I do nothing with it, I accumulate clutter. Have you seen the home with twelve rusted out cars, two buses, too many lawnmowers to count, and a bunch of other stuff lying around the yard? Don’t let your life become like that. Don’t bring it home at all, or if it is at home in your heart, get rid of it.   
 
Here are the base absolutes that help determine if it is junk:
 
Christ is my exclusive center.
My wife/husband is my exclusive lover.
God’s Kingdom my exclusive mission.
 
When is it a bad idea to bring something home? When it begins to threaten what must be exclusive in your life. Too much junk in your life keeps Jesus invisible, keeps your wife someone you live with, and your kingdom mission ignored. Negativity accumulated, piled, organized or stored leads you away from being able to live an exclusive life. Don’t let junk stand in your way.