Last Fall, I had had enough of the unusable Hall closet.
During the winter we couldn't open it because too much cold air would enter the
room. During the summer, we would just shove stuff into it. I would
occasionally move stuff aside so I could access decorations that were stored
there. But really, the closet was hopeless.
I began emptying the layers, organizing what I found.
Sometimes memories of special times would come flooding into my heart.
Sometimes I laughed that we still owned a particular item. There were many
things we no longer needed, so they were put into a pile to be given away.
There was a large amount of junk that just needed tossed. There were some
treasures we decided to sell. And there were a bunch of coats no one wore
because they needed cleaned. The coats
were either laundered or drycleaned. As we emptied the closet it became obvious
all the junk hid mildew from a water leak fixed years ago. And as we tore away
at the small flaw, we found larger hidden issues. We ended up gutting the
closet-throwing away the wall board, the insulation, and fixing the wiring.
We put in new wiring, new insulation, new wall board, new
ceiling, new paint, and a closet organizer. We were careful in what went back
into the closet. We found better ways to store things that we only sometimes
need.
This winter, we can use the closet, it doesn't drain the
heat from our home, and things are easy to find. The hidden disease was exposed
and eliminated. It is clean and what is inside is clean.
That is how Lent prepares our hearts for the Great Easter
Celebration. Whether we focus our hearts on prayer and worship (justice to
God), to helping others and charitable giving (justice to others), or to self
denial, self examination, self discipline (justice to Self)—we are purging some
junk room in our self to give the LORD room. If we approach this Lenten time
focused on the transformative nature of Christ’s work in our lives and permit
the Holy Spirit to move the clutter out-we will be ready to rejoice and
celebrate as a new creation in Christ. Setting our SELF aside to allow LOVE to
change us makes us GOOD.
Tami
