When my family moved to Abita Springs we learned of a tradition that puts Abita Spring on the map. Every year, at the end of March the Town of Abita Springs hosts an all-town garage sale. From humble beginnings nearly 20 years ago, this has blossomed into a huge event. Almost every home in the corporate limits of the town as well as businesses, church parking lots, the baseball field, is a garage sale. It is both one huge garage sale and it's dozens if not hundreds of individual garage sales.
The festival type atmosphere is heightened by food sales throughout the town, live music in a couple of locations and the visitors to flock to tiny Abita Springs from several states and almost every nook and cranny across Louisiana. Despite the festival appearance, this is still garage sale 101. Families and neighbors spend time cleaning out the old stuff, marking it all up for quick sales and donating the rest to charities. Everything goes; furniture, appliances, lawn equipment, auto equipment, clothes, books, toys, you name it. My wife and I made a bunch of money one year selling off our collection of saddles once we knew we would never ride horses again. It's an out with the old to make room for the new mentality. It could also be called an emptying of self, in this case, all the clutter that populates our spare bedrooms, attics and garages.
I mentioned the event is always held in late March so it always coincides with Lent. I wonder how many visitors to Abita Springs realize that the all-town garage sale is a Lenten event. Think about Lent! It is a time to empty ourselves of junk and clutter too. In a Lenten sense, that junk and clutter is our sinfulness and that which occupies our heart and head and mind and takes away from turning to a life lived for God. We empty out that old stuff, just like happens at the garage sale, and make room for that which will truly satisfy; a closer deeper relationship with Jesus Christ!
Just like a benefit of the garage sale is a new clean attic or spare room, the benefit of self-emptying allows God to create a new heart in us!
As Lent ends this year and rolls around again next year, and your calendar points to the end of March, come to Abita Springs for the all-town garage sale. And when you do, remember this is a Lenten reminder, that we too must clear out the old self and make room for a self deeply in love with Jesus Christ!
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