I mentioned in an earlier post that we will sell our former business at auction this Saturday. For the past few weeks I have been very busy trying to get things ready for the sale. This business had started in 1962 so you can imagine how much there was to go through. I have found some amazing things in the shelves and tucked away in corners. I found two new motors still in their boxes that are for air conditioners that haven't been made in probably 30 years. I found files in filing cabinets from back in the 60s and 70s that had absolutely no value to anyone. Some shelving back in the warehouse was filled with dust balls that were so thick I had to wear a mask to vacuum the shelves. The auctioneer told me to throw nothing away unless I knew it was simply trash because someone would buy it. The motors are ready for sale, but I've still hauled three truck loads to the city dump and have a fourth load ready to go as soon as we finish cleaning today.
As I have worked over there I have thought about our personal lives. How much junk have we accumulated over the years that have no value to us? I think it is very telling how many storage facilities are going up so people can store things that they can no longer get in their garage or attic. I wonder how much of that stuff is really important enough to pay someone to store, or is it that we just can't stand to part with our things?
But, I'm not really talking about material things in this post. Actually, I'm wondering how much junk we keep inside that have no value. How many of us continually review old wounds that others have caused us? How many of us remember harsh, hurtful words that were spoken to or about us? How many of us still recall the time when a trusted friend or family member hurt us deeply? How often do we still think about how we might get even with someone for the pain they caused us? How many of us harbor anger towards God because our lives didn't turn out the way we had hoped? How many pastors hold anger against deacons or others in the church that have created so many difficulties for the pastors and/or their families?
I read once when a friend of Corrie ten Boom was trying to remind her of a hurt someone had caused Corrie. Corrie kept saying she didn't remember, but her friend replied that she had been so hurt by the event that she must remember it. Finally, Corrie answered, "No, I distinctly remember forgetting that event." In the Lord's Prayer we ask God to forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Many of us might be helped if we began a thorough cleaning of our lives. My guess is that many of the material things you have laying around the house could be pitched without any change on your daily lives. But, more important is that there is probably a lot of stuff within us that could also be eliminated, and this would have the potential to add much to our lives. Maybe it's time to take the vacuum to the dark corners of our lives and begin to clean up the junk we've allowed to accumulate. Before you do, ask God to illuminate those corners so you can more clearly see what is there that needs to be removed. He'll gladly do that, and your cleaning will be much more thorough.
1 comment:
Your post made me think about the concept of forgiveness. In church, I was taught that when God forgives, he cancels and completely forgets the debt we owe to him and anyone else against whom we've sinned. Now, as humans, it's hard to intentionally forget when people have sinned against us. But what should it mean for us to forgive others? I wonder if there is a way that we control our thought processes -- a way to think; a way of thinking -- that can facilitate forgetting other people's past transgressions, and even our own transgressions against ourselves.
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