Have you ever reached the point where you look around you and just want to pitch it all? You look over the things accumulated around you, and the dust that has accumulated on the things - and the cob webs that have accumulated over the dust - and feel like you can never get rid of it all in an organized, timely, fashion so the easist thing to do is just start tossing it into a dumpster or bagging it and taking it to Goodwill, or maybe the dump?

How can I have the chance to live my life with a sense of peace and purpose if I can't be rid of all of the dirt, dust and clutter that surrounds me, and that doesn't include all of the work that needs to be done on the house - scraping and painting, tearing out a moldy wall or two and redoing the bathroom, replace cracked glass from the old windows? Then there are the accumulated tumbleweeds of dog hair that form a fuzzy border around the walls within 5 minutes of the last vacuum run (and makes the vacuum smell like old garbage when it is running).

And I don't have kids -- how do you all do it?

This would be a good time for Jesus to knock on my front door and ask me to abandon everything and come with Him, then I would have a good excuse and a great escape plan.

Maybe it isn't your physical world that you are ready to dump and walk away from. Maybe it is the emotional or spiritual part of you...the dirt, dust and excess stuff has accumulated inside and with each layer you find yourself further insulated from the love of the Father. We live in a fallen world with its incredibly sticky dirt, the kind that accumulates inside as well as outside.

The amazing thing is that we can go (back) to our Savior and ask him to take all of that sticky dirt from us, to wash us in the sparkling waters of his blood and rinse it all away (again), and He will. He can take the worst mildew and rot, scrape it away and restore the structure to what it once was, or what it was meant to be, so that you may function the way He designed you to.

"He's going to clean house - make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place everything true in its proper place before God, everything false he'll put out with the trash to be burned."
- Matthew 3:12 (The Message)

Jesus has asked us to abandon ourselves and follow him, though I realize we must still live in this world and take care of what he has given us. It is up to us to keep our homes clean and in good repair, but He is great at remodelling lives.

Have a great day,

Brad