The Hoarders House

Written by Gaven F

As a child I had grown up with a fair amount of TV, cartoons, shows, and movies..., some of which I found both equally captivating and horrifying. One show in particular was A&E’s “Hoarder’s”, if you shudder at just the name, you are not alone. A show about people who find themselves in unusual amounts of filth and grime, all while being in their own home. A team of workers come into these people's home with the intention of cleaning them, repairing them, and ultimately helping the “Hoarder”. Though the initial idea is filled with the want to help, the recipient of such help doesn’t always see it this way, such is also the same with the walk of recovery.

When I entered recovery, I was faced with fear, with change. I was going to willingly let strangers into my home and into my filth. The garbage I had let sit inside my walls had reeked of guilt and shame for years, every once and a while I could smell it, only not as strong as I had in times past. Those who were new and fresh to my place of dwelling, those whom I had thought would retch at the smell... simply, did not. I was instead met with people holding a mindset of compassion. A notion that was not often produced from someone who presented dirtiness in the face of others.

What I found after only a short time after my doors and windows had been open, was a fresh scent, one of sweetness. Peace. The garbage I had been dragging into my house for years, of my own volition, was finally being removed. By strangers, an idea before I could not comprehend. What I found even more amazing was the fact that I was removing it WITH them, one scrap at a time. The items that once brought me a sense of order and control, or so I had thought, had been removed. It seemed as if it hurt more at first, just as any wound would, but I soon found the healing that would now take place was greater than I could have ever imagined.

To summarize the theme, I’ve worked towards in typing this, I had to choose recovery to be freed. I first had to seek help for myself, as well as welcome it willingly. My resistance to it initially only cause prolonged suffering and injustice to my walk with God. Recovery works if you work it, people help if you let them. Freedom brings peace, a clean house brings security. I was a “Hoarder”, most of those who helped me used to be. God helped those who slept in the dirt and brought them up, so can be the same for all of us.

My name is Gaven, grateful believer in Jesus Christ, striving for moral and sexual purity.