I like to watch the show "Hoarders." (A&E) It makes me feel better about my own clutter... and folks, yes, I am a slob. There, I have said it in a public forum. Slobby and proud of it - well - sort of.
Sometimes my place is even too much for me to take. Usually it is too much for my hubby to take long before it gets on my radar, but odd times I get the purging bug and go on a rampage.
Most times it's the prospect of someone coming to visit that does it for me. So - I begin. And seeing the difference that my efforts make really does something for me inside. Unfortunately it only occurs occasionally. Like today - and I allowed myself this break to write about it.... ;)
But be that as it may ...
I was thinking (while cleaning - no, my hubby wasn't there to take a picture for posterity, although if he had been, he might have been tempted) about how the process of inner healing is a lot like purging clutter.
First, there has to be the realization that there is a definite problem, and that it is too much for one person to handle. (I've tried handling my own personal life-experience purging and that just led to me sitting in front of the TV with a bag of chips in one hand and a tub of chip dip in the other. And oh yes, the bag of chocolate bars on the end-table.) So the first action step is to ask for help. The only one who could help me (believe me, I've spent my life asking others to fix me - they couldn't either!) was God. So I asked Him, invited Him in to the mess.
Then comes the actual process of purging. Separating things out together - categorizing this and that, like piles of garbage to throw away, good things to put away, nice things I've outgrown to give away. Being an emotional hoarder (that is, I hang onto past hurts much longer than is necessary to deal with the emotions and let them go) I had to go through every piece of inner garbage of course. But that's part of the healing process. And God is so patient. He allowed me time to rest, to catch my breath - and gently reminded me to keep at it.
It took a long time. But eventually I started to see order emerge from the chaos that was my life. (Gratitude? OH yeah!!) Once the inner garbage was taken care of, and the good memories put away inside, and the nice things passed along, it was time to clear the path to my outside door (figuratively speaking) - some refer to this as sweeping my side of the street: the wreckage I had left in my relationships because of my own stuff on the inside, things that spilled out onto others. Those things I had to put right - and it took some time. In some cases it's still ongoing.
Only then, once my own spiritual house was clean and inviting, could I help someone else by sharing my experience. I could not go to them and clean their house for them. I just told people how awful my own was - and how I had come to the end of my rope and asked for help, then busied myself going through all that emotional clutter and getting it out, and sweeping my own relational sidewalk. The process works: it's beautiful to experience and just as beautiful to witness. I've seen it work in my life and I've been privileged to see it work in the lives of so many other people.
Now ... I know I left that mop and pail somewhere...
Sometimes my place is even too much for me to take. Usually it is too much for my hubby to take long before it gets on my radar, but odd times I get the purging bug and go on a rampage.
But be that as it may ...
I was thinking (while cleaning - no, my hubby wasn't there to take a picture for posterity, although if he had been, he might have been tempted) about how the process of inner healing is a lot like purging clutter.
First, there has to be the realization that there is a definite problem, and that it is too much for one person to handle. (I've tried handling my own personal life-experience purging and that just led to me sitting in front of the TV with a bag of chips in one hand and a tub of chip dip in the other. And oh yes, the bag of chocolate bars on the end-table.) So the first action step is to ask for help. The only one who could help me (believe me, I've spent my life asking others to fix me - they couldn't either!) was God. So I asked Him, invited Him in to the mess.
Then comes the actual process of purging. Separating things out together - categorizing this and that, like piles of garbage to throw away, good things to put away, nice things I've outgrown to give away. Being an emotional hoarder (that is, I hang onto past hurts much longer than is necessary to deal with the emotions and let them go) I had to go through every piece of inner garbage of course. But that's part of the healing process. And God is so patient. He allowed me time to rest, to catch my breath - and gently reminded me to keep at it.
It took a long time. But eventually I started to see order emerge from the chaos that was my life. (Gratitude? OH yeah!!) Once the inner garbage was taken care of, and the good memories put away inside, and the nice things passed along, it was time to clear the path to my outside door (figuratively speaking) - some refer to this as sweeping my side of the street: the wreckage I had left in my relationships because of my own stuff on the inside, things that spilled out onto others. Those things I had to put right - and it took some time. In some cases it's still ongoing.
Only then, once my own spiritual house was clean and inviting, could I help someone else by sharing my experience. I could not go to them and clean their house for them. I just told people how awful my own was - and how I had come to the end of my rope and asked for help, then busied myself going through all that emotional clutter and getting it out, and sweeping my own relational sidewalk. The process works: it's beautiful to experience and just as beautiful to witness. I've seen it work in my life and I've been privileged to see it work in the lives of so many other people.
Now ... I know I left that mop and pail somewhere...
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