Cleaning Your Closet

We’ve been making some changes. We are moving to an upstairs bedroom and making our old bedroom a den/study. The thing about cleaning is that you always find things that you never knew or forgot you ever had. It’s truly amazing! I can’t even imagine why we kept some of the things we found. We spent a lot of time throwing “junk” away. Today, we cleaned the closet. Wow! As I was cleaning and throwing things out I was amazed at how much junk we had stored in a 3x9x 6 space. One thing we dragged out of the closet was a box of old electrical/ computer cables. Really! Technology has advanced so much that not one of those cables would be good for anything now, unless I want to tie someone up. I’ll admit some days the thought has crossed my mind, but not today. They went to the curb along with countless other articles. As I was sorting, keeping, giving and throwing, I thought about my life. What does God want to do in my closet/ life? I can just see God saying, “Let’s get rid of this, it’s holding you back from following me” or maybe, “This is great but it’s no longer necessary. It served a purpose but now it’s time to let it go.” For still other things he may whisper, “This is good. I still have plans for this. Let’s put this in the keep pile!” The problem is that unlike the closet, we are capable of saying, “No” to God. I know at times I have held on to a habit, a bad friendship or something else that I’m sure God wanted me to “kick to the curb” but I was unwilling to give him permission to get rid of it. The problem is that as long as I had unnecessary things in the closet, I had no room in the closet for the things that really should have been in there. I had to get rid of the box of old internet cables and other useless things in order to make room for what really should have been stored there. So in my life, as long as I hold on to the pointless clutter, I may end up with no room for anything else. Friends, God wants to bless us with a good abundant life that will be good and pleasing to him but often we have our life full of things we don’t need and will never use so we have no more room for anything. Sometimes we have to be willing to let God clean the closet. Yes, there may be some things that God says you need to give “the old heave ho”. Yes, may hurt for a bit. We can, however, trust him. If he say it needs to go then it’s for our good to make us better. God will never ask us to give up what we really need. He loves us way more than we can imagine. His goal is to take all those unnecessary things and replace them with things that will give us an abundant life. Oops! It’s time to get back to cleaning the closet.

Comments

Live Fearlessly

As I was driving home today, I passed a person walking on the side of the road. Since it was cold, and snowy, I thought I should stop and offer the person a ride. As I drove on by, I was irritated with myself for not stopping. I could have and should have but I didn't. Why? I was scared! Maybe that wouldn't bother you, but I'm willing to bet there are things that make you afraid. It may be snakes or spiders that send the ticker into overdrive. Or maybe it's your job and finances that keep you up at night when you should be resting. Then again perhaps it's relationships that consume your thoughts and energy. As followers of God, we know that we are told not to be afraid. Yet we often are afraid despite everything we know. As I was driving away from a missed opportunity, I began thinking about what it is that makes us afraid. I honestly am not sure what it is that causes us to be afraid when we should be bold, but I

Tragedy: A Christian Response

I want to start by telling you a story. We were new parents. When Our oldest, a son, was about eighteen to twenty months we had another baby, a girl with brown hair and huge eyes. One day as I went to feed her, my son who may have been two at the time wandered off to another part of the house. The next thing I heard was a thud. I grabbed my baby girl and ran to see what happened. There was my son with a table on top of him. He had pulled it over on himself and more blood than I had ever seen was running all over. We put him in the car and dashed for the ER. It was not a fun trip. He had a skull fracture and many stitches. Fast forward about fourteen or fifteen years, I’m at a stop light and watch my youngest daughter about ten start across a street on a bike start across a street just as a truck comes around a corner into the path of the bike. She hit the side of the truck and bounced onto the road. I grabbed her up and checked her over there were no injuries, but

The God of Order

Yesterday, my children and I went walking on a bike trail. The weather was perfect. Sunny, warm but not hot. As we were walking, we started to talk about creation. Creation itself always amazes me. Can you imagine watching creation unfold at the word of the Almighty? It would be the most glorious and lovely thing to see. As we were talking, I asked, “What do you think would have happed if God had created people first?” They stopped gave me a questioning look then my daughter said, “I suppose that we would have starved because there was no food.” And we all had a laugh creating other scenarios for what might have happened if creation had happened in any other way. Yet, the fact is that creation itself demonstrates that God is a God of order. Each day of creation built on what had been done the day before. It also reminds me that God wants our lives to be as orderly as possible. God planned creation before one word was spoken

Inspirations

Search This Blog