Clean Out the Junk

It's been three days since I've written and I can't stand it.  I had such great intentions of putting a lovely picture of Brandon and I and another one of Asher and writing a cute New Year's Eve entry, which would most likely have documented this last year.  But several hours before midnight sickness set in.....I was asleep on the couch tossing and turning while Asher and Brandon brought in the NYC New Year at 11:00pm!

And then yesterday, I was sure God would honor all of my desires to begin prepping our house to put it on the market....cleaning out closets, throwing out junk, organizing....stuff.  I had even greater intentions to attempt to write something beautiful about the upcoming year.....

But here I am this evening, thinking about this day.  A beautiful day filled with cleaning out my master bedroom closet.  I wish I had taken a picture.  I thought about it....but was entirely TOO embarrassed to show you all my junk!  Five bags to goodwill, two bags of garbage, four plastic container bins and about a gazillion empty hangers and the junk is GONE.

 And the closet isn't very big!

As I was in the midst of the mess, the thought came over me... actually words Brandon had spoken at the onset of the idea of selling our house came into our focus.....

"All of  THIS just weighs me down."

I couldn't understand at the time, not because I didn't want to but because I couldn't see.  I am sure I asked him things like..."What do you mean by THIS?....Do you mean the house, the yard, the garage, the tumor.....what exactly is THIS???"  I think I thought if I could pinpoint what the THIS was, then I could come up with an answer.  But the truth is that he didn't know what the THIS was either.  Just a prompting from within.

 Today, I could see. 

My stomach was actually nauseated by the amount of stuff I had acquired in a tiny closet over the course of six years.  Don't get me wrong....I'm not saying that nice clothes and beautiful shoes are the source of all things wrong in this world....but what I am saying is that there is a time to PURGE.  There is a time when we accumulate too much physically, emotionally, and mentally.....and it was time, today, to say good-bye.

Maybe that is what 2013 will be for me.  The year of letting go of things that I have held onto for so long.  I don't have anything in mind, necessarily.  A lot of you might say...."Rachel, chill out....not everything is spiritual...not everything is about God....just because you cleaned out your closet doesn't mean you need to clean out your life..."

Maybe you are right.  But maybe, this is a prompting.  Maybe everything IS spiritual.  Maybe God speaks to us even through the act of cleaning out a closet. Maybe I was embarrassed to show you my closet full of junk because I am embarrassed to show Him my "closet full of junk".....

I think this year, 2013, I will let Him draw me closer, guide me further, search me deeper, cleanse me in more purity, prepare me for more richness, nurture me with more love, reveal to me with more clarity, capture me with a tighter grip....that within me may be a place where His Holy Spirit may continue to dwell in more and more power.....whatever all of that means....that is my prayer!


".....in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit."
-Ephesians 2:21-22 


Happy New Year!  Here's to 2013 and cleaning out some junk!