Squat, aluminum spaces enclosed by unwelcoming barbed wire or steel gates are located randomly around the city. Marked by such signs as Storage-R-Us and The Space Place, people like you and I gather “stuff”—undesirable items and maybe-we’ll-use-them-someday-things—and pay hundreds of dollars every year just to have a video camera supervise our favorite junk.
While storage units can effectively meet a short-lived need, they were never designed to store clutter for months or years at a time. Yet, 50% of all units are filled with unwanted castoffs—furniture, old toys, and unused clothing—secret places clogged by material surplus.
Like a personal storage unit, my mind is often full of spiritual clutter. The uneccesary…the unneeded…. even the unwelcome. Misguided self-perceptions, worry, unkind words spoken by another, past sins I hold onto out of guilt. Like a jumbled collection of debris tucked away in a rented lot, my self-created storage space grows crowded. Sometimes I’ll dig through the mess and rediscover a memory.
You’re worthless.
The carefully guarded words reemerge from the past—taunting me.
What was I thinking? I can’t believe God could forgive me for that.
Self-accusation robs my joy and disregards the mercy of the cross.
The accumulated rubbish stands testimony to my inability to let go—to give the One my faults…my hurt…my self-accusation. Then, he gently reminds me. Stop holding onto this debris! It does nothing but fill empty space when I promise to fill your heart.
Let me take it—all of it– for you, Child. Let me have your spiritual clutter and I’ll give you freedom.
And when I set aside the unwanted castoffs? I no longer pay the price of keeping a tight hold on the stuff of the past.
Instead? I’m rid of the spiritual clutter. Friend, let’s remember to give Jesus our mess!
Scripture for Reflection
…he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
(Titus 3:5)
