"Spring Cleaning"
I love spring. I would have to say that it is my favorite season. This year, after a ridiculously long Michigan winter, I’m especially looking forward to spring. I love the robins, the flowers blooming, and that springy smell that floats through the air. But I also love spring cleaning!! There’s nothing like opening the windows and doing some good old fashioned room cleaning. Inevitably, while sorting through my piles of “stuff”, I find those things that I just can’t bring myself to get rid of. You know what I’m talking about. That little something you find later and say, “Why did I keep this?” Most of the time you probably can’t even remember what it is, let alone why you saved it. It’s just another piece of clutter. Yeah, I have a lot of that kind of stuff.
Sometimes we have a lot of “stuff” in our lives that we just can’t get rid of. Things we insist on keeping that really serve no purpose. Perhaps it’s bitterness toward someone who hurt you years ago. Although when you try to think what they did that was so unforgivable, you just can’t remember. Or maybe it’s a habit that you just can’t seem to get break. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a bad habit. But if it is something that is hindering your relationship with God, chances are you’d be better off without it.
Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Take a good look at your life. Is there any stuff that maybe you should get rid of? There are some things that are just so hard to throw away. Things we hold on to for so long we can’t imagine having to let them go. II Peter 5:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.” We forget that we have all we need in Christ. Everything else is just “stuff.” Only by yielding to the Holy Spirit can we get rid of those things that are keeping us from the richest blessings Christ has to offer. God has called us to live pure, holy lives. But first we have to get rid of all the “stuff” that has collected and is cluttering our lives.
So open the windows and start your spring cleaning!
-- Jenni Brummel