I'm a hoarder (sorta)

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I spent time cleaning my room for a bit last night.  Over the past few days (okay, weeks) I let some clothes build up on the floor and I had some sorting to do.  I separated the clean clothes that needed to be folded from the dirty clothes that needed to be washed.  As I folded the clothes and sorted through the chaos, I began to see my floor once again.  I was a neat freak living in a messy room and that really caused me some frustrations.  Once I sorted through the clothes, I began to feel a bit more ease. Seeing what lay underneath the clothes (my floor) was nice, though it took some effort.  I vowed to myself that I would not let this happen again.  It will happen again.

God does the same thing with our hearts.  We ask Him to lead us, direct us, guide us and shape us.  We ask Him to be the center of our beings and to create within us a new heart.  Jesus, in His everlasting faithfulness to us, walks into our hearts and begins renovation.  "This is dirty, this is clean.  This needs to be folded, this needs to be donated and this simply needs to be thrown out."  I imagine when Jesus does this we turn into those people from the television show "Hoarders."  "Don't throw that out, I need that!  You can't get rid of my defensiveness, it might come in handy!  I need my 'I've been hurt too many times' excuse, please don't get rid of that.  Donate time and energy from my heart to love someone else besides myself?  Please not now!"  And yet, Jesus knows better than to listen to us.  He continues to sort, separate and clean.  

Throughout this process, despite its pains and trials, Jesus gets to the bottom of the matter and reaches the floors of our hearts.  Suddenly, we feel that peace and ease that comes with seeing the floor again.  "Ah, this is who I am.  This is how it's supposed to be."  We breathe a sigh of relief, recognizing that underneath the chaos is the fullness of life that God designed us to enjoy.  

Allow God to clean up your heart.  I struggle with this myself, struggle with the idea of God throwing away the things I think I love.  Nevertheless, I would rather endure the pain of organizing my emotional and spiritual hoarding so I can see the floor than pretend that the mess is really what I want.  True story.

P.S. - That picture is not my room and I am not an actual hoarder...possibly just a metaphorical one.