Discarding the Clutter

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.…" Ephesians 4:21

Bruce and I used to find ourselves glued to the television show dedicated to Hoarding. It is both unbelievable and unthinkable that anyone can allow their home to get to the condition shown on these documentaries. One of the saddest components of this show is the fear to let go of any one of these items. What we view as trash they view as necessity and an attachment to their emotional health. It requires outside efforts which are beyond their ability to achieve a healthier view and environment. Their surrender to bring in assistance to attain something better is quickly reclaimed as soon as they feel threatened. One of the biggest concerns is having the home cleaned out only to collect the clutter again. Change from the inside must be accomplished for the outside to remain healthy. It takes analyzing one item at a time that eventually leads to freedom from our self-made prisons.

If we could see the inside of our hearts we would see the same going on as we see in the homes of these hoarders. We pile up our bitterness, our wounds and our injured hearts and create such spiritual clutter there is no room for forgiveness. We hold on to patterns in our lives that are destructive but comfortable in approaching our trials. We ask God to come in and remove the spiritual clutter of our hearts, but then we quickly snatch back something He has determined needs to be discarded. Worst of all, once He has done the work in our lives to clean up and clear out we begin collecting new emotional clutter instead of filling our home with healthy things such as meditation, service, prayer and focus on God.

If our hearts and minds are to become ‘hoarder-free zones’ we must truly surrender the trash, allow God to throw away what He determines and replace the new found space with God focused treasures.