I've been helping a church where I served as Youth Pastor 20 years ago. Their pastor has resigned and they needed someone to help them through this transitional period and I was both interested and available so we are going on a journey together. It's been an interesting experience. A lot has changed over 20 years for everyone. The church is smaller and older than it was 20 years ago. I am larger than I was 20 years ago... but like everyone else, I'm also 20 years older which puts me in a very different place than the last time I was there.
We did something today that I think was very symbolic. We threw away 20 years of accumulated 'stuff'. Some would say 'junk'.... 5 or 6 truckloads left the building today. It was exciting. 20 people spent the morning working, laughing and just chucking stuff out. Never have so many been so happy to throw away so many things!
While that's exciting, especially if you are a 'clutter buster', what's more exciting in my mind is the very significant break from the past. Without exaggeration, I threw away things that were saved from when I was on staff there!! We laughed more than a few times about what we were finding as we worked our way through shelves, boxes and closets.
I don't know how it is for you, but there are times, (like now) when I look at my life and see the definite need for some serious 'clutter busting' to take place. I don't intentionally set out for things to get complicated or to pack needless baggage along the way. It just happens, and it happens for a lot of reasons, some of which are more valid than others.
There are some huge temptations in clutter busting. The biggest is to want to clear the clutter in someone else's life. The best way to handle that just might be to remember the words of Jesus when he told us to take the beam out of our own eye before worrying about the speck in our brothers eye. He's right (again...) Simply put, it's not your business to be messing with someone else's clutter. Get your own stuff in order and keep it that way. At least that's the lesson I'll be working on over the next few weeks....
