day 222: Offsite Storage

In the business world there has been much discussion about the importance of records retention and ensuring that we both are not storing records too long and not too short. Many a company has sprung up to consult with companies on their records retention policies as well as run their document storage and protection services for them. The company, Iron Mountain, was founded for just this purpose and today is very successful in storing off site important and valuable documents and data. I love the name of the company as it clearly signifies what it is that they do and whenever I hear their name it conjures up the picture of some mountain range in the Rockies or the Appalachians with a deep shaft where in go the records for eternal storage, if necessary. Of course that is not the case (as far as I know) but their company gives the firm impression of safety, security, protection and storage as long as needed. I admit, I am a work pack-rat. Papers and documents from who knows when hang around until the cabinets are bursting at the seams and there is no choice other than to clean out and dump. I was always the guilty one of storing records for too long. The records retention lawyers like to have the files cleaned out every so often too. There is a policy for just how long we should keep any file or data. Matthew gives us the best records retention policy ever written when he tells us in Matthew 6:19-21: "Don't store up treasure here on earth where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there is your heart and thoughts will also be". As we think today about where our valuables and treasures are stored, let's remind ourselves that the possessions we have here on earth are time-bound and not worth a cent to us after we are gone. The offsite storage that God is talking about is the treasures that he has given us within our hearts and souls of his gift of love and salvation. Those treasures are on an eternal retention cycle and His "iron mountain" is the security that is like no other.

Reference: Matthew 6:19-21 (New Living Testament)