On Spring Cleaning

I started cleaning out my closet the other day (no, not in the Eminem sense....). You know--going through clothes, getting rid of junk, trying to clean out stuff that you don't really need or use.

As I started going through clothing and random items, I realized that I've got a lot of stuff that I don't need. I mean seriuosly--how many pairs of khaki pants do I actually need? So, I started putting stuff in a box to give to Goodwill. My giveaway pile has grown quite large over the past day or two.

I accumulate a lot of junk. I do tend to save things that I'll never need. I don't know why. Perhaps it's the human condition. It's just hard for me to let go of things, I guess.

My heart is often the same way. I keep a lot of things inside that shouldn't be there: grudges, pride, sinful habits, etc. For some reason, I just have a hard time letting go of these things. I know that they're just cluttering up my spirit and dragging me down, but I just can't seem to part ways with it.

It's kind of my like my Frodo complex. You remember in Lord of the Rings when Frodo stands at Mount Doom, ready to cast the ring of power into the fiery lava and destroy Sauron's strength forever? Remember how he just couldn't let go of it because it just had too much of a hold on his life? Yeah, I have a lot of those things in my life as well.

We are not called to live a life that is cluttered by the things of this world. We are not called to have a spirit that is choked out by sinful things. We are called to a life of freedom. Jesus wanted for us to be free indeed--free from everything in this world. Free to live, free to love, free to grow, free to be joyful, free to serve, and free to glorify him without anything else dragging us down.

To get that freedom, though, we've got to do some cleaning, even if it means throwing something away that we really want to hold on to.

Kind of like that Hawaiian shirt in my closet....