The Stuff of Life

Rainy season is in full force here in Salatiga. The upside to the rainy season is that there is no dust. The downside is that we have mud and mold. At least every other day we receive about 2 inches of rain. Yesterday, it rained hard and then on and off for the rest of the day. We easily exceeded our usual 2 inches.

We've had to adjust our thinking toward rain. In the Midwest we welcome rain. It's something that happens throughout the year. While we are accustom to rain in Oklahoma, it is not a season in and of itself. Here, there are only two seasons and they are named by the frequency of rain; rainy season, rains almost daily, and dry season, rains occasionally.

During the rainy season we have discovered what it means to have and maintain stuff. Our first experience came when the hard rains began to fall. A collection of leaves where two roof lines converge caused the rain to come in. Frantically we moved furniture and "stuff" to somewhere dry and then spent the next couple of hours soaking up all of the water. After this initial soaking, the mold has been growing everywhere. We've tried to repel it by running ceiling fans 24 hours a day. We've been fairly successful at stopping the mold from growing on most of the walls and ceilings.

However, what do you do about books, clothes and shoes? We're familiar with items feeling and smelling damp when stored in a basement. But what happens when everything everywhere feels damp? Clothes mold, books mold and everything made of leather molds.

Over the Christmas break I left my pair of leather shoes up at school. I usually wear sneakers to and from school and then change into my dress shoes once at school to avoid tracking mud everywhere. I didn't think about mold growing on my shoes. After two weeks, the mold had taken root. Even after a good cleaning and multiple coats of brown shoe polish, my shoes still bear witness to the realities of the wet season. Another causality of the wet season has been my leather sandals. The picture tells the story. The mold developed in just a few short weeks. Colorful, right? Well, I cleaned them multiple times before I smartened up and had our maintenance crew install light bulbs in our wardrobes. The bulbs provide just enough heat to dry out the air inside the wardrobe and keep the mold from growing. Now we keep anything that can mold in the wardrobe with the doors tightly shut.

Our experience with "stuff" and the rainy season has lead to a new perspective on Jesus' sermon to the people gathered on the hillside somewhere in Galilee. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [and mold] destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust [and mold] do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Perhaps we all need some type of rainy season in our lives to remind us of what is important and what is just "stuff".