Cleaning, clearing and changes.....

wow... has it been this long since my last post...  sorry for that.....


“There are times when you need to treat your life like your closet and go through all of your stuff. Keep what you need and toss what you no longer wear (or shouldn't have worn in the first place).

There are things to give away and things that just go to the "good will" pile.

I think I am definitely moving into that kind of a season. Both in life...

and in my closet.’

I always find that my spring cleaning actually happens before winter.  It’s something about preparing for the winter that causes me to feel that sense or need to clear things out.
Perhaps it’s all the the times I spent in with my yard in Oregon.  Just before the began, I would take to that yard and begin to trim, cut, and move everything in preparation for the next season.  My outrageously tall roses would be trimmed down to only a foot above ground, my bulbs would be moved to where they could germinate during the cold winter.

Friends would come by and think I had lost my mind seeing how low I would trim those roses....  but I knew what they didn’t about these giants.  They loved the challenge of coming back stronger and more vibrant than the year before.  Everything in my garden came back stronger when I did this.

So what does this have to do with the “now” of my life you ask?

I don’t have a garden anymore (which grieves me dearly).  At least I don’t have a garden outside of my home.

What I do have is my own life... my own home.... the inside parts that need to be trimmed, stirred up, moved about, and most of all....

challenged.....

Hebrews (from The Message) 12:26-27

“His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time  -- He’s told us this quite planing -- He’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.”  the phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

I am feeling the shaking.  I am feeling it deep in the core of my life.  I know that there is a change coming.  A season that I need to prepare for somehow.  I want to be ready for the other side of the change.  Ready to grow and be more of who Love has called me to be.  Willing to be stripped down to the “germination stage” so I can come back vibrant and strong.

Perhaps as I clean my home and make ready for the changes that I can see, I will uncover and discover those things that lay hidden just under the surface that also need attention.  Perhaps I will see the thread of what God is saying more clearly as I open up and listen with my heart and my hands.

Perhaps as I surrender those things that I have not truly worn (or ever should have worn in the first place) - the stuff of my closet - I will see also see those things internal: labels,  lies about myself, those false places of security that also need to be let go of.

We all have seasons of change.  Seasons where letting go needs to happen.  Life brings with it change. That is a truth from the moment we are conceved until the moment we are released into Glory.

Here is the challenge...  How we move through those changes not only releases us more freely into the change, but helps us learn more about who we are as they happen.  Knowing what to keep and what to toss into the “good will” pile.  Doing it all with grace and humility and a thankful heart.

And when you see another who is moving through the challenge of letting go.  Keep in mind the journey they are about to move into.  Be kind... be encouraging... help them let go when it needs to happen.  Help them see the adventure and release them into it.

Here is to the preparation... to the place of letting go and releasing.

Here is to the adventure that happens along the way if we will simply do a bit of cleaning to make room for it.