Decluttering

“Seriously?  Another.  Crystal.  Bowl.”

Feel free to substitute “crystal bowl” with candleholder, coffee cup, or crocheted something or other…

We recently helped my parents move - and there’s nothing like having to put stuff into boxes, transfer and unpack it into another home, to make you realize the human tendency to accumulate.

It would be easy for me to point and waggle my finger at my folks, but I think about the four spatulas in my utensil drawer, pairs of high heels sitting in my garage unworn, and way more books in my online hoopla account than I’ll ever have time to read in the next thirty days.

I think about the accumulation in my soul.  The stuff I’m putting into my heart and mind.  The desires, the anxieties, the frustrations of the world that I consume hungrily, distractedly, every day - bringing burden and clutter and chaos into my inner home.

What’s up with that?

Is it a fear of not having enough?  Not knowing enough?  Not doing enough?

Not being enough?

What is enough?

I am the Israelite in the wilderness, so used to living as a slave to the Empire, that even as one who lives in the redemptive freedom bought by the Lamb's blood, the reality of a gracious and sovereign God - who provides daily for my every need - takes a lifetime to penetrate deep into my soul.

There’s so much junk from my enslaved past that Jesus can barely enter the foyer of my home.

Perhaps I need to start by decluttering.  Both in my physical home.  And my spiritual.

It will take time - to sift through the pile of stuff and to slowly, patiently discern.  The junk I need to throw out.  The precious items to save.  The beautiful pieces to put on display and share joyously with others.  The extra, but still worthy things to give to those in greater need.

What are these “things” for you?

How will you make time to sift through the clutter in your soul?

The pay-off to the time you spend in this simple but necessary act?  Space.  A peace-filled, welcoming, physical and spiritual home with generous room for God, and for others.

Lectio Divina:

Meditate on Philippians 4:4-9.

Memorize Philippians 4:8 as a way to discern what to keep and what to toss out in our time of sifting, and to choose wisely what we allow to enter out homes next.

Karen Schaffer is the pastor of spiritual formation at The Tapestry Richmond
Photo: Photo by Hugo Rocha