By Rev. Deanna Woodward
Maple Leaf Parish – Cherry Grove, Fountain and Spring Valley Faith United Methodist Churches
Spring is often a time for cleaning and de-cluttering our homes. Families are getting ready to host garage sales. Winter clothes are stored away and closets are made ready for lighter summer wear. Children grow, (and sometimes adults do, too) and so wrong-sized clothing needs to find a new home. At church, we are collecting clothing for a community clothing giveaway, and the large number of donated articles indicates that people are doing some major closet cleaning!
If the COVID pandemic brought us anything positive, one of the benefits was that spending more time at home made some of us face up to the amount of clutter we have, and gave us more time to do something about it. At my home, I have finally eliminated some boxes that were piled in my study, filed away some papers, and began to unite stacks of family photos with the empty photo albums that had been waiting for “someday when I have the time.”
It’s a good feeling to clear out some clutter and I don’t think we always realize the stress, embarrassment and anxiety that clutter produces. How often have we hurriedly shoved stuff into closets before guests arrived, or had conflicts with others over lost items or been delayed while searching for things that had been misplaced?
If it is any consolation, we have this challenge in our time because never in history have people been as overwhelmed with piles of stuff as we have. Whether you’re a child or a senior citizen, you have more stuff than any child or senior in ages past. Quite a contrast with past generations who could pack everything in a covered wagon! No wonder older houses have such small closets.
While we’re spring cleaning our physical clutter, let’s also consider chucking some of the mental clutter that drags us down. How many old grudges or how much stored up resentment or bitterness or guilt do we have? Let’s lose that luggage. This means letting ourselves experience God’s forgiveness in our lives and offering forgiveness to others. We pray in the words of Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”
Here is another prayer from an unknown source:
Lord, help me now to unclutter
my life.
To organize myself in the
direction of simplicity.
Lord, teach me to listen to my
heart;
Teach me to welcome change
instead of fearing it.
Lord, I give you these stirrings
inside me.
I give you my discontent.
I give you my restlessness.
I give you my doubt.
I give you my despair.
I give you all the longings I hold
inside.
Help me to listen to these signs
of change, of growth;
To listen seriously and follow
where they lead
Through the breathtaking empty
space of an open door. Amen.