Uncluttered

This is it.

Our youngest child is about to go off to college. Well, he is no longer a 'child' in the strictest sense of the word, but he is the youngest of our five young adult kids. I will miss him...a lot. Although I will miss him when it is time to pull out of the driveway on that dreaded trip to the dorm room this weekend...I am glad of one thing in all of this...

He is taking his stuff with him...and he has tons of stuff, (not like my daughter had when she went off to college...but that is another story for another time). He has computer stuff. He has electronic stuff. He has video gaming stuff. He has 'airsoft' stuff, (that is the gear and the equipment that guys run around the woods with while shooting each other with rubber bb's). All this stuff does not even include his stereo stuff, his clothes, linens and towels...and the mini-fridge and microwave that he has in his room here at the house. This young man has some stuff!

In organizing his stuff and arranging what is needed and what is not so needed, the truth is that some clutter has been discovered. Imagine that! After years of enjoying the homestead, things have kind of piled up in the closet, drawers and other places. It just kind of happens. We all can relate. Things that we once needed or used have been replaced with other things that we need or use as the years go by...and then you have to clear the clutter, the un-essentials so to speak, keeping the useful, the endearing and the necessary.

I would hate to have to admit the times that I have sorted through the clutter in my closet, on my chester drawers, in my desk and through my files. That does not even include my garage or my car trunk, computer case and basement storage room. If there was ever a 'King of Clutter', I may win the title and take home the trophy to be stored with all my other stuff!

Closets can be like hearts. They can become cluttered to the point of suffocation. They can be overrun with so much 'stuff' that to add anything new or necessary may demand a reassessment of what is really important and what is just not. The closet may just have to be cleared out completely and arranged to make room for the needed and new. Hearts and spirits can use the same attention. Is there a better time than the beginning of a New Year, (or a new semester) to delve deeper into the clutter that may have taken up space that could and should be reserved for something better and of more excellence?

The Apostle Paul may have been encouraging the church at Ephesus to take a careful inventory of their lives when he said; "You were taught , with regard to your former way of life, to put off the old self, which is being corrupted by sinful desires, and to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." Ephesians 4:22-24

What are the 'old' attitudes, values, experiences and loyalties that have cluttered your life, stifling your heart and stolen your spiritual joy and effectiveness? Maybe you cleared the 'closet' of your heart and mind before, but you have left yourself unkempt, unintentionally but actually polluting your life with compromise that has drained your vitality for the things of the Lord. Is this the time for you to do a 'clean sweep' through your spirit, re-aligning your life priorities to the Christ Who has redeemed you by His grace and goodness? Its true, there are some things that need to go! One thing you can count on, when you are putting on the 'new' in Christ, you will not multiplying clutter, you will be enjoying renewal! What can be more rewarding than to experience God's character forming in the once cluttered but now cleared and clean out heart?

One fact about a cluttered life...worthwhile, Christ-centered relationships that stimulate your love for the Father and prompt you to be invested in His agenda of loving others to Him should have plenty of room in your heart. Attitudes, baggage, regrets, things as well as a darkened thought life and heart ponderings must go...but people who encourage you to live in the light of the 'new' person that you are in Christ must be welcomed, appreciated and enjoyed. Take time to be the kind of person that you need others to be in your life in 2008! Be certain to remove all that is not akin to your new nature in Christ...others both need and are encouraged when His righteousness and holiness is actively inspiring in them a desire for an uncluttered life.

David will soon be off to pursue the dreams that the Spirit has birthed in his spirit. His room will be empty and his closets will be cleared. His room will be a clutter free room...until summer. I owe him. I am marked with gratitude to him for these 19 years of blessing, joy and memory making that he has instigated in the Weber household. I may have to trash the clutter that has now been cleared for the big move...but I will cling to the joy that this young son has given to his middle aged Dad...and look for his headlights in the driveway. His stuff may be gone, but he will always come home...and I can't wait!

I look forward to the 'new' men in Christ that both of us will become in 2008.