December 12, 1995
The poster says, “A clean desk is a symptom of a sick mind.”
Whether my mind is hale and hearty is debatable, but one thing is certain, my desk is never clean. At the moment, one side hosts a stack of research for something I am writing, two magazines, a calculator and three letters. The other side is buried under a pile of receipts, two cassette tapes, a glass of water, a book, reminder notices of events, my cordless phone (the cradle is somewhere) a box of diskettes, a basket of pens, memo paper, some business cards, and an open notebook stuffed with loose pieces of “to do” notes to myself.
The mess bothers me enough to clear it off about once a week but in no time it is messy again. Actually, according to a verse in Proverbs, I should be proud of the mess. The verse says, “Where there is no oxen, the stall is clean.”
Solomon, who wrote most of Proverbs, knew if a living, working animal was around, a mess could be expected. If nothing else, my messy desk indicates I am alive and working.
Also, my mess has a redeeming quality — it is never the same. This morning, the pile included two boxes of tissue, a cross stitch kit, three magazines and an invoice for my mother. By tonight, the contents of the mess will change again. To paraphrase that Proverb: “Where there is life and activity, there will be a mess to clean up!”
Active living creates debris of all kinds. There would be no “messes” if we never did anything, never took risks, never created, never involved ourselves in work or play. Desks would be clean — as would homes, garages and life — clean, but uneventful and boring.
The risk takers in life endure fatigue, physical harm, emotional downturns, ridicule, and failure. Those things can be “messy.” But without risk, there would be no exploration, no conquests, no inventions, nothing new. So along with adventure, risk takers usually have to clean up — the first man to use fire had to carry out the ashes — but his cave was warm.
As far as taking risks goes, God qualifies. Imagine the angels when they first heard His plan to redeem the world: “What? Risk Your only Son in a virgin birth? Have Him raised by ordinary parents? Why have Him become something so vulnerable as a human being?”
Maybe they added, “You mean Your plan for Him includes only three and one-half years of preaching and teaching? And it will climax with everyone deserting Him? And the religious leaders hating and killing Him? Oh, what a mess that would be!”
Even riskier were three days in a grave, a resurrection, then returning to heaven leaving a handful of astounded disciples to manage the message of redemption. How could God trust the greatest story in the world to mere sinners, stubborn and slow to learn? Would they do the job and take the message that Jesus died and rose again to the whole world?
Perhaps God said to the angels, “This is my plan. If the disciples do not succeed, it is the only plan I have. I am willing to risk it.” So He did.
The disciples took a risk too. When they took the Gospel to the world, most of them were persecuted and killed. Only John lived to old age and he died in exile. Some would call them failures yet generations later, other risk takers have heard and passed it on, taking the risk of fatigue, persecution, ridicule and physical harm. By God’s grace, the power of the Gospel continues to transform ruined lives and mend broken homes.
Christians who avoid the cost (sometimes very messy) of sharing the Gospel will discover that not working might give them “clean stalls” but tied to their safe, no-risk choice is boredom, spiritual lethargy and a vague sense of wondering if they are in the right place.
Showing posts with label mess in our lives. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mess in our lives. Show all posts
Monday, October 10, 2016
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Heart Cleaning .............. Parables 255
(February 20, 1991)
It won’t be long until spring cleaning. Out come mops for dirt and garbage cans for disposables. It feels good to sort out and clean up, even if it takes courage to tackle a long-neglected attic or basement storage room.
One time I volunteered to help a girl clean up her dirty room — without first seeing the room. Never again. It was an hour before the two of us uncovered the floor. The whole project took three days and yielded a truckload of dirty clothes and an enormous pile of trash. Any sense of accomplishment was nearly lost in our exhaustion. Even though the job was necessary, it would have been a lot easier if she had done a little each day, or even once a week, and not allowed the mess to get so out of hand.
For Christians, spiritual cleaning is necessary too. While it is best to keep our hearts continually clean, that is, confess sins daily, sometimes that doesn’t happen. We don’t hear God telling us about the dirty places, or we hear but don’t listen. The dirt begins to pile up in the corners.
But, whatever the sin, and whatever the reasons we refuse to deal with it, even if WE allow a backlog, GOD will not. Because He loves us and determines to deliver us from it, He will expose the covered, unconfessed sin, sometimes quite dramatically, and force us to do something about it.
In other words, sometimes God opens up some closets, spiritually speaking. When He does, the about-to-be-purged Christian discovers some skeletons and maybe even a few rotting corpses. Not a pleasant discovery. In fact, most of us would just as soon close the doors on the putrid mess and “move out” rather than allow Him to clean it up. However, when such a thing happens His grace prevails and there is nothing to do but give the mess to Him and see what He is will do to clean it up.
One note, this may never have happened to you (yet) but watch out for a smug, “I never did anything so bad as that person did” attitude. None of us can boast. I have clutched and concealed collections that didn’t please God and know rot is rot in His sight, whatever the degree of stench it discharges. Even if someone's cluttered closets offend me more than my “less” odious messes, both are equally offensive to the nostrils of God.
Nonetheless, like that girl’s room, the first sight of previously concealed filth, can be overwhelming to someone who lets it pile for a long time. Ten or twenty years of trash seems to need a bomb, not a broom. However, God’s cleaning program isn’t quite like ours. We see a big mess and want to either run away or reluctantly roll up our sleeves, but all He wants is us to get down on our knees with a contrite heart. He will do the cleaning. The promise is found in I John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In severe cases, it takes some while for all to be confessed. The offenders who allow the pile to accumulate agonize over each piece of junk, some of which has been hidden for years and years. But with each admission, the grace of God fulfills the promise. The cleansing happens. The closet begins to sparkle. In fact, sometimes the difference is so incredible it seems that there never had been any junk in there in the first place. All that is left are fading memories of the horror of first opening the door.
Not every closet is the same, but God’s promise covers your closets and mine; those that are nearly bare and those that have purposely been closed and accumulating far too long. From us, He wants honesty only, and the closet door (our hearts and lives) thrown open to His light. From there, He takes the blood of Christ and applies it to whatever garbage has been hidden in storage, washing it away and giving us a new start. What a wonder!
Certainly it takes courage to look at a big mess, either one from the present or one from the past. And it takes courage to pull out each rotten item and lay at His feet... but He is a capable Cleanser. His grace is sufficient to purge our hearts and change our lives. Not only that, He can keep them that way.
It won’t be long until spring cleaning. Out come mops for dirt and garbage cans for disposables. It feels good to sort out and clean up, even if it takes courage to tackle a long-neglected attic or basement storage room.
One time I volunteered to help a girl clean up her dirty room — without first seeing the room. Never again. It was an hour before the two of us uncovered the floor. The whole project took three days and yielded a truckload of dirty clothes and an enormous pile of trash. Any sense of accomplishment was nearly lost in our exhaustion. Even though the job was necessary, it would have been a lot easier if she had done a little each day, or even once a week, and not allowed the mess to get so out of hand.
For Christians, spiritual cleaning is necessary too. While it is best to keep our hearts continually clean, that is, confess sins daily, sometimes that doesn’t happen. We don’t hear God telling us about the dirty places, or we hear but don’t listen. The dirt begins to pile up in the corners.
But, whatever the sin, and whatever the reasons we refuse to deal with it, even if WE allow a backlog, GOD will not. Because He loves us and determines to deliver us from it, He will expose the covered, unconfessed sin, sometimes quite dramatically, and force us to do something about it.
In other words, sometimes God opens up some closets, spiritually speaking. When He does, the about-to-be-purged Christian discovers some skeletons and maybe even a few rotting corpses. Not a pleasant discovery. In fact, most of us would just as soon close the doors on the putrid mess and “move out” rather than allow Him to clean it up. However, when such a thing happens His grace prevails and there is nothing to do but give the mess to Him and see what He is will do to clean it up.
One note, this may never have happened to you (yet) but watch out for a smug, “I never did anything so bad as that person did” attitude. None of us can boast. I have clutched and concealed collections that didn’t please God and know rot is rot in His sight, whatever the degree of stench it discharges. Even if someone's cluttered closets offend me more than my “less” odious messes, both are equally offensive to the nostrils of God.
Nonetheless, like that girl’s room, the first sight of previously concealed filth, can be overwhelming to someone who lets it pile for a long time. Ten or twenty years of trash seems to need a bomb, not a broom. However, God’s cleaning program isn’t quite like ours. We see a big mess and want to either run away or reluctantly roll up our sleeves, but all He wants is us to get down on our knees with a contrite heart. He will do the cleaning. The promise is found in I John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In severe cases, it takes some while for all to be confessed. The offenders who allow the pile to accumulate agonize over each piece of junk, some of which has been hidden for years and years. But with each admission, the grace of God fulfills the promise. The cleansing happens. The closet begins to sparkle. In fact, sometimes the difference is so incredible it seems that there never had been any junk in there in the first place. All that is left are fading memories of the horror of first opening the door.
Not every closet is the same, but God’s promise covers your closets and mine; those that are nearly bare and those that have purposely been closed and accumulating far too long. From us, He wants honesty only, and the closet door (our hearts and lives) thrown open to His light. From there, He takes the blood of Christ and applies it to whatever garbage has been hidden in storage, washing it away and giving us a new start. What a wonder!
Certainly it takes courage to look at a big mess, either one from the present or one from the past. And it takes courage to pull out each rotten item and lay at His feet... but He is a capable Cleanser. His grace is sufficient to purge our hearts and change our lives. Not only that, He can keep them that way.
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