Pack it up!
Linda Soller | Mar 14, 2016
For those of us trying to lose some weight and improve our health, they say we should get rid of clothes once they don’t fit. Supposedly this will encourage us not to put our weight back on. So last weekend I attacked my closet and dresser drawers. I am already that person who believes if you go for a year without wearing an item you should consider giving it away, so someone else can actually use it. Note the word consider. Some items are just special for sentimental reasons, or the way they make us feel when we wear them, or for those unpredictable times which call for specialty clothing. Snow pants come to mind, mine are twenty years old. Once done, I love the feeling of freedom as I look in my closest and see clothes no longer crammed together, or the dresser where items are folded and easy to get to. Bags of items sit in the hall ready to pass along to friends or family who I think may want them. Other things, which won’t fit anyone I know personally, are bagged to go to the Closet in town. If I leave the bags sitting for a day or two I am usually able to add a few more items. But I have a rule, once in the bags it can’t come out.
Like clothing we don’t wear we need to look at conflicts, grudges, opinions, and habits we don’t need to carry around. We need to pause routinely and pack up or toss away those things which weigh us down. At the time we acquired them they seemed reasonable or even necessary. My habit was getting up in the morning and plopping on the couch with my breakfast to watch the morning news. Seven months ago my wake-up call came and I needed to find time to exercise. Being a person who is highly skilled at making excuses I knew right away the morning had to be my exercise time. I let go of my couch potato start to the day. Is there someone who has a habit or mannerism that drives you nuts? Do you anticipate trouble because of conflicting opinions and stress about confrontation? What would you do to get what you want? Is it time you took a long look into yourself and packed up all those things that don’t serve a positive purpose? Do those feelings and attitudes fill you so full you have no room for something new and good?
On the way to His last days Jesus spoke of how we need to be. He told us to love one another, to stop being greedy, to make the most of our lives. His stories were relatable. There was no story about clearing your closest. But I think it speaks to our material, stressful, greedy, confrontational times pretty well. Jesus tells us to let go of those things which are contrary to living a Christian life. I suggest we pack it up. Pack up all the internal stuff we know we don’t need, can’t use, should never have acquired, and experience the cleaned up, open person we can be. I think you will find there is more space inside you to be the person God calls you to be.
Have a great week! :o) Linda