Oh joy! Spring is officially starting this week and that means spring cleaning also starts this week. Unless of course you happen to be ahead of the game. Which I am not.

I love spring cleaning…except for the cleaning part. I love cleaning out things. I love making a big mess cleaning out closets and drawers, the basement. But when it comes to putting everything back in place, yeah, that’s not quite so much fun.

I also always wonder what exactly do I do with all the used-to-be-treasures we’ve unearthed? Do we keep them in hopes of having a garage sale this summer? Do we give them away? Do we take them to GoodWill (or like store) or do merely leave them in the middle of the kitchen floor?

Yeah, okay so that last one isn’t really an option but you know when you’re tired of looking at things it’s nice to just leave them alone. And sometimes it’s easier to deal with the pain of stubbed toes and painful knees from tripping over them than it is to deal with it one more second.

Kind of like the Christian life isn’t it? We get all excited when we see God working a big work in our life. We start hauling old junk from our closets thrilled to finally be rid of last years baggage. Only after a few hours (or days) we realize it’s more work than we thought. We rationalize it isn’t hurting anything or anyone just hanging around. We ponder what we will do without it? How on earth will we replace that thorn in our hearts? We’ve become quite accustomed to it. Yeah it hurts like the dickens but really it will hurt more if we pull it out.

So we decide to leave well enough alone. We apologize to God, “Whoops, sorry, God. You just can’t have that yet. I’m not finished. I might wear it again next week. God, You know it’s always been my favorite. I need it.” All the while we are wincing with the pain of it all.

Yeah, taking it out, getting rid of it will probably cause some {more} pain, but when it’s over it’s over. No more pain. No wondering what we will fill the empty place with because Jesus fills it with His presence. The pain we thought we’d carry with us forever is gone in a nanosecond.

I can’t explain it. I’m not even sure I fully understand how it’s possible. But it is. And yes, I have things I’ve been hanging on to for far too long. I have some emotional clothes that are so far out of style they will never come back in style. It’s time to chuck them to the curb. It’s time to find new clothes. Righteous clothes. The clothes of the saints.

It’s time to make my inner self match the outer self. It’s time for the inner me to match what God sees when He looks at me. You see He doesn’t see the old baggage, but He sees Jesus is in me and He declares that Good!

Now I’m not saying He doesn’t see at all the baggage I’m trying desperately to hide. He sees it alright and He’s dying to get rid of it. But it doesn’t define who I am in His eyes.

And it doesn’t define you either. People will tell it defines you. It makes you who you are. But think for a moment about what God says of you, what He says you are.

It doesn’t match the baggage does it? It doesn’t match what other people say you are, does it? So why on earth are you hanging on to it? Why we do try so desperately hard to shove our bodies into old worn out clothes that are painful to wear? Why do we insist on living in the garbage dump of our sin and shunning a palace bedroom?

I’m all for sleeping in the palace bedroom. I’m all for shunning the garbage pile of my sin and selfishness (which is a sin too by the way), I’m tired of sleeping with my head in the coffee grounds and feet in a pile of dead, rotting food.

It won’t be easy and I know I’ll slip backwards sometimes but God says “It’s time to get rid of those.” So I’ll take His hand, and trust His heart to not annihilate me. He desires my good, and your good.

Matthew 11:29