Does the Bible Say That Hoarding is Evil?!

As I stood staring at the half-bare shelves in the pet aisle of the local Dollar General, wondering what the difference is between “clumping” and “non-clumping” cat litter (come on…I should know this…I have four cats and am no newbie to the possible inclination toward cat hoarding)…I put these least expensive (but “non-clumping”) bags into my cart, staring at the limited selection of cat litter and cat foods…contemplating whether to also buy a small bag of “indoor cat” kibbles today, just, in case…because…while remembering the other day learning on Google that one can, in fact, find many recipes for homemade (healthy and nutritious for those pampering cat owners) dry cat kibbles…and…imagining a scenario (because…um…I have a great imagination!) where current supply chain shortages might…um…render many people devoid of basic necessities like…um…cat litter…cat food…

…I sort of snapped out from my daydreaming and mused to myself, “This is no joke!”

I mean…one friend works in a pet store and told me first-hand they are not getting anywhere near normal shipments of cat food.

Another good friend in the south tells me the shelves are pretty bare there without much cat food and other things…she and another friend, also have mentioned shortages of other essential things for manufacturing such as the element rare earth, and silver, though it is unclear to me on Google (and I spent little time) whether this is truly the case and if so, what the cause might be…(let inquiring minds research…)

So at the register I asked, “are you having supply chain shortages of cat food?”…

…to which the two ladies say, “no, it is in back…we have a shortage of shelf-stockers…”

Walking out to my flowered hippie van vehicle (ha) and putting the three bags of non-clumping cat litter in (I would have bought four but there were only three) I was still musing what it might be like to feel like a modern day Joseph or Noah of Old Testament times..prepping for some potential cat-astrophe…and I thought to myself…

“Does the Bible say that hoarding is evil?”

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True Story

Many moons ago in some of my early church interactions, I had a friend who believed, and told me, that hoarding was sinful, a sign of secret greed, sinful fear of lack of provision and trust in God, and that those who hoarded could expect the wrath of God in their finances.

Being a young and somewhat sensitive soul (as opposed to now being an old and somewhat sensitive-but-tougher-thicker-skinned-soul) I really took this message to heart and it terribly impacted my relationship with God and my view of Him at that time.

Like many young marrieds, we were dirt poor and for many natural (rather than spiritual) reasons.

And having a great imagination even then, it was easy for me to imagine we were experiencing the wrath of God in our finances for a number of the listed “biblical reasons” of possible “secret sins.”

I mean…I was a hoarder.

I hoarded a number of things, but especially LIVER.

I was a…LIVER-HOARDER!

I would browse the meat aisle and prices and see that I could buy a pound of chicken livers in a plastic container for around fifty cents. Yes…that cheap. And I would put five or ten of these into my cart and into our freezer…along with other sale items or reduced priced foodstuff!

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I amuse myself these days when I call a certain tech support number for something I often need tech support for…they have a security question of “what is your favorite food” and I thought I’d get tricky and say “liver.”

No one would ever guess that one!

Ha.

I’ve had this answer for years and I always wonder what the overseas tech support people are thinking when they reach some lady in the US and ask her what her favorite food is and she says, “liver.“

Actually, when I give this answer the human on the other end of the phone doesn’t seem to bat an eye. They simply and tacitly acknowledge, that I have answered correctly, with the seeming assumption that my favorite food is, in fact, liver.

“Thank you, that is correct. How can I help you?”

Really.

Talk me out of loving to eat liver…that’s how I can be helped!

(No, seriously…chicken livers fried with onion is awesome…in small quantities, of course…!)

But the best part is getting the automated prompt which asks this question, and after years of being immediately put through to someone by answering “liver,” suddenly in recent times, the prompt can’t understand my speech!

It says, “sorry, your answer does not match our records.”

And I think…“Ohhhh…..yes it does!”

Sometimes I will over-enunciate the word slowly and like a robot would say it…

“liiiiiiii…..vuhhhh….”

…and if I’m asked to repeat I get frustrated and increase the somewhat aggressive tone to my speech…“LIIIII…VERRRR……LIIII….VUHHHH…MY FAVORITE FOOD IS….LIIIII-VERRRRRRRRR…..”

…to which I’m then asked to give the last four of my credit card on file…because…they don’t care what I eat as long as I can prove I’m a paying customer!!!

Right?!

Ha…I’ve digressed.

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Anyway, there are some proverbs and other biblical texts which might suggest that some types of hoarding (depending on one’s motivation, perhaps) could have some correlation with greed or other forms of selfishness and lack of trusting faithfulness.

And then there are the Israelites who weren’t permitted to collect the daily manna for the future and Jesus praying “Give us this day our daily bread…”

One can surely make some type of case for most anything from the Bible, I suppose.

And with that, I remember continuing to amuse myself with this somewhat altruistic thought, in the cat aisle, “um…I’ve been told I’m a pretty resourceful person and I probably am…I really should leave the dry cat food (beyond current needs which…might include several weeks worth while I test making homemade if it came to that….lol…) for those who wouldn’t think to make their own cat food.“

Now…cat litter.

That’s a whole different ball-of-wax!

I’m not so sure I’m up for making my own cat litter in case of…um…emergency!

As is…um…genuine Epson ink cartridges and papers which my printer devours in relation to my business…I’ve actually researched where these cartridges are made…a bit unclear…I didn’t (yet) spend much time on it. Appears that Epson America Inc. headquarters are in California but their inks are made in China…

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I think a good place to end this half-joking/half-serious musing is with memories of being unexpectedly trapped in a temporary living situation in Delaware during 2020’s pandemic shutdowns…

…just me, four cats, two rooms, a tiny kitchen, a large bathroom, four cat litter boxes….and many stacked boxes of my stuff there (and much more in various locations of storage)…with bare-boned art supplies to run parts of my business until I got to a permanent new home.

Which ended up not being the expected two to three months but close to seven months!

While me and many others in the US started mixing up our days and nights…living in our pajamas, watching Tiger King episodes, drinking wine, hoarding toilet paper and holding our breath while scouring the shelves for any hand-sanitizer (I even made my own wipes with PineSol poured into containers of baby wipes after a friend had the idea!)…

…I look back on this bizarre situation and remember that for me, it was a time of a lot of creative exploration.

When life gives you lemons, make some lemonade, right?!

I imagined it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imagine and sort of experience to some small degree what it was like to be Van Gogh…ha ha…living alone in a small apartment with nothing much else to reasonably do than to create…day and night…!

Van Gogh's Bedrooms | About the Paintings — VAN GOGH’S BEDROOMS | ABOUT THE PAINTINGS

I was both attempting to lighten my load of art junk by shredding up old prints, re-purposing them and using up old paints – while exploring new collage ideas and techniques.

Since it seems to me the themes of this writing are mostly 1)hoarding, 2)cats and 3)unusual situations….I leave you with some images of my “Cheshire Cat” artwork…also named “Pandemic Cheshire” (I was very focused on the tale of Alice in Wonderland at that time on Audible) with a number of derivative pieces involving toilet paper hoarding and more!

I suppose contemplating whether hoarding is some form of evil makes for interesting thoughts…I don’t know that there is any absolute answer! We live in a modern, nuanced world and most of us live in the tension between being grateful and trusting in having enough for today – and our valid concerns about tomorrow.

One of my favorite Proverbs is, “give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.” (Proverbs 30:8 NIV)