The note on my mailbox says that mail left for more than ten days will be returned to sender. This could be a problem for me because I am often gone for a month or more. It’s not that I even want most of the mail sent to me. I would love to have the post office return the letters about life insurance, offers to sell my home, urgent requests to extend my warranties, and anything asking me to vote for somebody. These are the items that clog my postbox, but six months of mail I want or need can easily fit. However, there are times when something important arrives. Once, the Department of Motor Vehicles sent a letter about a problem with my car registration, but I was on the road and couldn’t retrieve it. That fiasco ended with the registration being cancelled. Another time, I almost threw out a good-sized rebate check because it looked like an ad. These things happen when a mailbox gets overcrowded.
Sometimes my head gets as jammed up as a mailbox. After filling it with useless information, something important arrives, and I have trouble separating it from the trash. What do I want and need to know, and what is just wasting valuable brain cells? Philippians 4:8 is helpful here: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” I want to fill my brainbox with these gems. Everything else can be returned to sender.