I once had a friend who had a very interesting slant on how to keep her house clean. Every six months she would go through everything in her house (drawers, closets, cupboards, file cabinet, et.) and clean as though she was getting ready to move. Her house was always neat and easy to clean because she would not let anything "collect".
I thought of her this week as I observed my brother trying to move his metal shed from one place on his property to another. Everything that didn't fit in his house or workshop was in his shed. When he pulled it all out, the piles looked bigger than the shed itself. It was amazing how much was there. After he moved the shed he was determined to not put all that stuff back in it. So today, as I write this, he is headed to the dump! As he drove away, he laughingly said, "I'm getting rid of a whole van full of my 'much-loved' junk!"
All those pieces of wood and lumber and miscellaneous items looked like they might be useful "sometime", so he held on to them, and these things consumed his storage space.
How much this is like the way our hearts and minds and spirits become at times. And what a good idea it would be, periodically, to review these areas... to do a deep cleaning. For often we have a build-up of thoughts and ideas which may not necessarily be bad, but which are just not necessary or useful to retain.
We are most useful to God when our minds and hearts and spirits are open and "ready to move"... unencumbered... into whatever new endeavor He would have for us to do.
© 2007 Arlene Schwartzkopf