Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Clutter

When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

Nature abhors a vacuum. Clear off a table, and soon a new pile of clutter starts to accumulate. Put up a shelf and before long it will be filled with books or knickknacks. Build a garage or put up a storage shed and pretty soon you’ll struggle to find space for the car or lawnmower. It happens to our schedules as well. Free up some time each week, and it won’t take long for your boss, friends or spouse to give you some new activity to spend those hours on.

It’s a rare person who can escape clutter. Our jobs are cluttered with tasks that are redundant and inefficient. Our homes are cluttered with stuff that we don’t really need. Our days are cluttered with activities that use up more resources than they are worth.

Nature abhors a vacuum. If you want to be free from clutter, it’s not enough to clear it away—more clutter will just replace it. If you want to be free from clutter, you have to replace it—replace it with something that’s worth having. If you want to be free of clutter, you must reduce the amount of space that your life offers to clutter. If your home feels crowded, don’t buy more shelves or put up a shed—get rid of some stuff instead. If your day is filled with too many activities that are frivolous or needlessly time consuming, replace them with things to do that give value to human life and are emotionally rewarding.

Clutter is hard to get rid of, because in an odd way we value it. A cluttered house can make you feel well off because you have a lot of stuff. A cluttered schedule can make you feel important because you have so much to do. But here’s the thing: Jesus loves you. The Son of God gave His life to adopt you as His own. You don’t need clutter to feel good about yourself; you already have value as a child of God. In fact, clutter is more than a nuisance—it’s a distraction that piles up into a wall that hides God from view. The things that you have are clutter if they require your attention more than God does. The items on your to do list are clutter if they don’t leave you time for worship and prayer.

For the sake of your spiritual health, reevaluate the clutter in your life. Nature abhors a vacuum, so when you start clearing away the clutter, be sure to replace it with things that matter to God.

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