A friend recently shared on FB this quote: “The easiest way to organize your stuff is to get rid of it.” (Joshua Fields Millburn).  We see it all the time – solutions to manage our stuff – things like “Three easy steps to get organized” or “Turn your trash into treasure” and so on with an array of DIY suggestions. Books, videos, magazines, television shows and best friends make organization look not only easy, but fun and actually desirable! Ha! We (well, most of us) have accumulated ourselves into a hole. We fill closets and garages, attics and basements, cupboards and corners; and then shift it all around again from one to the other. Trunks and totes, bags and boxes hold stuff we just can’t let go. And it robs us of our space to, you know, organize. We need room to breathe, move about in our space without tripping, or having to move out of the house just to find something. I lose stuff so often that it’s gotten to be a joke in our family. They just laugh and remind me that it’ll turn up somewhere. Today I found a couple of old blue canning jars with zinc lids that I thought I’d lost, or more correctly, I’d accused “somebody took/hid/broke/moved” them.  I stopped doing that by the way, after several “lost” items turned up where I had put them. Today it was in the back of the buffet as I reorganized my stoneware storage in preparation for a paint job. Are they really worth keeping if I survived this long without them? I might do well to take inventory throughout my house asking, does this serve a purpose, have I needed it in the last ten years, and would it benefit someone else to give it away?

When I read the neat quote my friend shared, I thought, hey there’s a thought! Get rid of it. But for a sentimental collector of all things ever given to me, it’s not that easy. Sad, right?  However, it did get me to thinking of the ‘stuff’ on the spiritual realm that could be blocking our view of  greater peace, or hindering our walk of faith. Do we collect, so to speak, too many secular notions, worries of life, or perhaps a bin full of grudges. Tons of stuff could squeeze us out of spiritual space to grow and walk freely with God. From old emotional scars, to the latest craze in communications, anything that we aren’t currently using for a good purpose like encouragement for others, or growing in knowledge, has become clutter that needs tossing out. If it cannot be removed, then it can be reorganized (which means lined up properly) and repurposed for use on some level to bring glory to God; and would not supersede the place God desires in our lives.

I am the chiefest of sinners, as Paul put it, in the department of keeping too much stuff. Just as it makes organization difficult on the household level, so does it on the spiritual level. Shuffling and shifting it around does not help; it uses up more time and end result, it’s still there! I’ve spent valuable time looking for things hidden among unused items I thought I might need someday. I have as well, lost non-refundable hours lying awake to solve problems instead of giving them to God;  or time watching mindless television shows, instead of doing what I complain of never having the time to do. (I found it easier to break myself from that than I thought it would be; the quality of programming made it so.) Too much time doing crosswords to have a devotional? Put them in the recycle bin. Too much time on Facebook to read my bible? Shut it down until I learn to limit my time. Slept too late to check on a shut-in? Set an alarm and enjoy a little extra time; sunrises are inspiring! Harboring an old grudge that hinders true fellowship? Forgive and forget. I could go on and on with examples, but you get the idea.

Let’s not try to rearrange or work around the stuff that hinders our spiritual walk; lets just get rid of it. Fill those spaces with what we really need. Paul lists them here:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)