eBay Stuff
I do not like to throw items away. You never know when you’re going to need something or when you can re-purpose something. Or, you can always put it on eBay. That is the biggest reason to hold onto junk now, eBay has turned our old junk into treasure.
Got an old record player? Some sucker, I mean buyer, is ready to work himself into a frenzy bidding against other suckers, I mean consumers, for your junk, err, valuable collectible.
I have seen Hot Wheels that sold for a dollar in 1968, sell for thousands on eBay. Old records, dolls, sale ads, you name it, somebody is selling it, and others are buying it right now. What is it that makes grown adults, myself included, bid for items from their past and things they outgrew or didn’t treasure enough to keep years ago, but now seem indispensable?
There is something inside us that tells us that if we could just regain yesterday, our lives would somehow be better. We glamorize the past, grumble about the present and fear the future. No amount of junk from eBay, or anywhere else, is going to change that. The past looks good today, but when it was the present, we grumbled and complained about it.
There was a sign in an office that read, “Yesterday ended at midnight.” How many times have we let yesterday’s hurts and disappointments rip us off today?
Emerson said:
“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”
Oswald Chambers said:
“It is of no use to pray for the old days; stand square where you are and make the present better than any past has been.”
What a great way to live.
Paul said the same thing when he wrote:
“This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:13,14 NIV)
Let’s press on, yesterday’s defeats and victories are just that, yesterday’s. Today has plenty of trials and challenges of its own. Don’t burn today’s energy fighting yesterday’s battles or worrying about tomorrow’s, which may or may not even materialize. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself, Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matt 6:34 NIV)
Without a relationship with Jesus, though, it doesn’t matter which day you’re facing, you’re fighting a losing battle. God has strength available to each of us, we just have to ask Him for it.
So go ahead and chase old Hot Wheels, Beanie Babies, Barbies or Tiddlywinks. Just don’t expect that having them will make your life complete. The great “completer” of life is a relationship with Jesus. It’s what you were designed for. It is what God intended for you all along. And the great thing about it is, you don’t have to bid for it on eBay. It’s totally free.
Bidding on junk, I mean good stuff… Jerry