Spring Cleaning!

Now that spring is here (although the weather has been more like mid winter the last two days!), many of us have already gone through (or are planning to soon go through) the ritual known as "spring cleaning." Last Wednesday, our church staff took the morning and in place of our regular staff meeting, we cleaned our offices. My office was LOONNNGGG overdue for a thorough cleaning! And it took us ("us" because my wife graciously offered to come in and help me out) four hours of almost non-stop work! In that time I filled a box of books to be given away ... and hauled four large trash bags of "stuff" out to the dumpster.

Now did I enjoy the time of cleaning? Of going through shelves and shelves of books and deciding what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to give away? Of cleaning out drawers and sorting through piles of "stuff?" Absolutely NO!!! But am I enjoying the fruit of that labor? The labor that has left my office cleaner and more orderly than it has been in years? The effort that has even lead visitors to my office to comment on its more tidy appearance! Undoubtedly YES!!!

This reminds me somewhat of the Christian life. We need to regularly unplug from the world and take some time to do some "internal housekeeping" - even if this can be at times an unpleasant experience. Our hearts tend to grow cluttered with time. And if we don't make the time to do self evaluations (using the mirror of the Word as our guide), our hearts can very easily begin to drift from Christ. In one of the most compelling verses in the Old Testament (at least for me), we are urged to "Above all else, guard your heart for out of it are the issues of life"). Are YOU guarding your heart?

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj