Housecleaning

My husband and I are getting ready to move from our house in Damascus to a smaller house here in Mount Airy. As we prepare for our move we have begun the arduous process of repacking most of our belongings. We began this process last weekend and as we looked around the house at the task before us, we realized there were still several boxes that had never been unpacked.

As an army brat who moved around a lot, I’m used to this process of packing, unpacking, and repacking. And with every moved we made in life, no matter how long or short our stay had been, there were always at least a few boxes that had never been unpacked from the previous move.

Those boxes are mostly filled with old papers or toys, well loved stuffed animals or the occasional trophy. But more than anything else those boxes are filled with tangible reminders of past memories. Some of them are happy memories, some of them remind me of how proud I felt after particular accomplishments, some of them remind me of painful times in my life. I have old report cards that remind me how proud I was to have earned an A in a particularly hard class. But I also have letters that my father wrote to me while he was stationed in Iraq back in the 90’s. The letters remind me of the painful time of my life and yet I can’t bring myself to throw them out. Those boxes are filled with the stuff of my memories, and I carry them with me, wherever I go.

But this past weekend, I realized that just like those boxes in my basement, most of us have unpacked emotional and spiritual boxes we carry around in life. So often we go through life, carrying with us the scars of our past. We carry the guilt of things we’ve done and things we left undone. We carry the anger and resentment caused by past wrongs and wounds. We carry the fear and anxiety that our previous experience has taught us to expect the worse possible outcome. We all have past baggage we carry with us wherever we go.

Sometimes we need to take some time to clean our houses and our hearts. We need to be intentional about inviting God and the Holy Spirit into our lives to help us remove the unnecessary baggage we carry around with us. God wants to help us clean out our hearts.

I encourage you to consider what needs to be removed from your heart? And what would you like God to place within you?

If you would like a scripture to help you think and pray about this question, read Ezekiel 36:25-28.