Clean Out Your Closets
by Barbara Chadwick


On my To-Do List for today is “Clean out the closet in the back bedroom!”

You know that we are here at this church as Interim. That is, until the church finds a full-time pastor. Well, recently the church had a candidate come to preach in view of a call. We invited them to come and see the parsonage. As they walked through they opened the closet doors. This was a natural thing for them to do but I hadn’t thought of this part of the tour! I was embarrassed. We’ve been here two years and - well – stuff accumulates. What can I say?

I had been putting off cleaning because I hesitate to get rid of some of the things in there. Also, I can’t decide where to put some of those things.

There are some shabby clothes that I’m keeping in case one day I should have to paint or clean up the garage, or do yard work.

There are some good clothes I can’t wear any more. I need to give them to somebody who can. There are several pairs of good shoes that I bought. They felt fine when I tried them on in the store but they hurt my feet now. (Age does something unexplainable to feet!) They would look nice on someone with strong, younger feet.

There are travel bags that need to be put where the suitcases are. A pile of scarves sits on the third shelf. They need to be put in a drawer. Three pairs of pajamas are sort of wadded up on that shelf also. Why aren’t those neatly folded in a drawer?

There are empty boxes that held gifts of jewelry. The jewelry has been put into the jewelry roll but I save these boxes in case I craft some item of beads or some such that I can give to someone. However, in order to do this kind of thing a person would have to either have a gift of creativity or take a class in something or other. Alas…

Receipts, scrapbooking stuff and calligraphy stuff go in a closet designated for that genre of “stuff.” Books and papers from seminars need to be filed. Cobwebs need to be swept down and scrapes on the wall need to be fixed. One day we moved in and the closet was clean and the next (well, actually two years later) it's a mess! How did this happen!

Little by little my heart gets full of “stuff”, cobwebs and scrapes, too. I have closets in there that are full of jealousies. There are closets where I'm hoarding anxieties. There are cobwebs of prideful issues and scrapes of slights I'm nursing - holding on to. I go along and things pile up in there.

When I stop to think about how God sees it I’m embarrassed about the mess - the pride, selfishness, judgmental attitudes, etc. and ad nauseum. It all needs to be cleaned out. Renewed. Filled with the love, joy and peace that only God can give.

I need to ask as David asked, Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalms 51:10