Preparing for Your Spiritual Move

Photo by Rachel Spauldilng, Stock.Xchng

Yesterday, I was going through our medicine cabinet in preparation for our move.  I found five boxes of Band-Aids, including the one I had just bought because we were “out”.  I also found several bottles of calamine lotion, which I apparently bought in bulk so I would be prepared for the invasion of the killer poison ivy plants. 

This has been the scene throughout my house lately as we purge our lives of accumulated junk.  “I forgot I had this…” has fallen from our lips a time or two this past week.  Sometimes it is good, as we recover a lost treasure, and sometimes it is not so good.  Like my husband’s 80’s cell phone which he had been holding on to for years.  “You never know…” was his response to my raised eyebrows.  True, you never know.  But I can’t see customers around the world ridding themselves of their iPhones in favor of shoe sized phones.

I love the Army, because it forces me to reevaluate what I hold onto every couple of years.  And with the weight limit on our household goods, I am also reminded of the value of keeping things simple. 

Spiritually, this should be true as well.  Often we let habits or sins, which have grown old and accumulated dust, sit in the far reaches of our life.  They got hidden behind other things in our life, and we aren’t dealing with them.  We also let spiritual garbage cover some of our lost treasures.   Instead of embracing the blessings of joy and peace, we let our junk crowd them out.

It is not wise to attempt to move forward in our spiritual walk, when we are holding onto all that surplus stuff.  It weighs us down, clutters our hearts, and keeps us from our treasures.  So get out the trashcan, and start throwing away the mess that pulls you down.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Heb 12:1 NLT)