Focus on faith: Cleaning out the clutter
By Wally Blackman
Faith columnist
When I recently retired, my study was filled with mementos, materials, files, books and other items useful to me in ministry. It was a monumental task to start deciding what I would keep and what I would not keep. I gave away books, threw many files and materials in the recycle bin, except what needed to be shredded. A lot of stuff went into the trash, and thankfully the church had a dumpster. I could not believe how much stuff I accumulated over 38 years as a pastor.
I still had floppy disks with sermon files, disks, cassette tapes and VHS tapes that I would never use again. So even with great information on them—out they went. I must say, it was very difficult for me, because I am something of a hoarder. My garage is filled with stuff I don’t use much, but occasionally, I need it. That is one of my next projects—to clean out the clutter in my garage and move on to clutter in other places in the house. My wife would tell you; she’ll believe it when she sees it.
Our lives can get cluttered like that. Sometimes it is with the negative things of our past. Poor choices. Failures in action or inaction. Events thrust upon us by others that hurt or hindered us in life. When we keep those kinds of things in our mindset—they lead to frustration, bitterness, hatred, and other destructive emotions and actions. However, sometimes we hang on to the memories of what is good to the point we are no longer looking forward to new challenges, new opportunities, and new work in our lives. We are as they used to say, “resting on our laurels.” I’ve known many people and churches who are content with remembering victories of the past, rather than prayerfully seeking God’s new work for the present.
How do we declutter our cluttered lives? We can forgive ourselves and others as the Lord has forgiven us when we receive His gift of grace and salvation. We remove a lot of negative stuff through extending grace and forgiveness. Also, we can intentionally choose to, as the Apostle Paul said, “forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead.” One of those things ahead is “the prize of the upward all of God in Christ Jesus.” Let’s clean out the clutter!
