>Reorganizing

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Last Monday I walked into Steven’s room planning to prepare it for packing. I wasn’t ready to actually pack it yet – that won’t come until Wednesday, the day before the actual move. But, I did want to get everything ready.  To have all of the sorting done before the time came to pack so that I could easily just put everything into a box or crate and be ready to go.

One of the things I found in Steven’s room was a plastic crate overflowing with cars. I was stunned! I knew he had a lot of cars, but…good grief! There were cars piled high into the crate and more cars all over the floor in his closet and bedroom. There was no way they would all fit into the crate anymore, and I couldn’t figure out why. So, I dug in with the intention of getting rid of as much as necessary to make sure that everything would fit into the crate.

As I began the task, though, I discovered that the problem  wasn’t really the cars. Yes, there were some broken cars that needed to go, but they were not the true cause of the crate overflow. The true cause was the stuff that didn’t belong. The wooden pieces to a shaped train that Steven loves – but that belongs in a cloth bag, not in the car crate. Parts to his policeman set. This and that from his tool set. Miniature police and firemen that should have been in a bag of their own. Miscellaneous other toys that should have had their own storage space. All of these things were crammed into the car crate, preventing the cars from fitting properly.

Within an hour, I had everything sorted into its own container.  Amazingly enough, the car crate was suddenly the perfect size! Plenty of space for the cars he had, and a little extra space for any new cars he might get in the coming year. Each other toy or set was in its appropriate place as well. There was a very small pile of clutter and trash to dispose of, but for the most part a simple rearrangement was all that was needed to take care of the problem in Steven’s room.

My life is often like Steven’s car crate. Yes, there is some clutter and trash here that needs to be cleaned out, but for the most part it’s not that there’s junk in my life. It’s just that things aren’t arranged properly. They’re not put in the right spot. Not prioritized properly. They’re just all jumbled in together, and the result is that nothing seems to fit quite right in my day to day life.  Sometimes I need to truly clean out and throw away the junk.  But, other times I just need to make sure that the good stuff in my life isn’t just all jumbled up together, keeping me from using any of it properly. 

My prayer is that as I set up a new home and reorganize the stuff we own, I will also look at my spiritual life. I hunger to reorganize my priorities and straighten out my thought life so as to de-clutter my spirit. The daily striving to become more like Christ is much more easily accomplished when everything in my life is right where it belongs.