So this is my garage right now. It is super-cluttered with stuff. All kinds of stuff. Old stuff, materials for various projects, things that just need to be put away. Some things we’re hanging onto for whatever reason, other things that just have no place right now. We don’t have a basement and we lack in attic space, and so the garage is just a dumping ground for numerous things. And unfortunately, this spills into the house. After many seasons, life can literally get cluttered.
I like to do woodworking, and my wife loves projects where she makes things out of old wood, and to repurpose old things for new. I want to put new siding on my shed, but I need space to work and right now the space is filled up with stuff. And so, I am looking forward to some warmer weather where we can just get in there and purge, clean things out and open up the space. This needs to happen before I can work on those other projects, and get the rest of the house in order.
Such is life. Jesus says:
Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:42
He goes on to say:
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45
Now I know my garage full of stuff may seem like a minor, first-world problem. And it is. But I am using it as an example that speaks to the readings today, because like my garage, our minds, our hearts, and our very souls get cluttered with things throughout the year. Good and bad. And we spew out whatever is in there – good and bad.
We are what we store inside. And if we’re cluttered, we cannot see past that clutter. It’s all we see. And it can be overwhelming. It can be chaotic, and cause for anxiety. We may just want to close the door and pretend it’s not there. But it hinders us.
I can’t even cut a simple board right now because I cannot even get to my saw in my garage. Is this a major problem in the grand scheme of things? No. But if I want to fix things up around the house, or do a special project for my wife, or teach my son how to do wood working, or even if we want to pull a car into the garage – I need space to work. It needs to be clean and open, with everything in its place.
Just like my cluttered garage prevents me from doing the work I want to do, a cluttered mind and soul prevents us from being who we’re supposed to be and doing the work God wants us to do. He doesn’t have the space to work.
God needs the space to work in us. And we cannot let Him work, and we cannot do His work out in the world if we ourselves are cluttered with negativity, sin, and pain. We’ve got to purge. We have to rid ourselves of all this clutter and make room for Him.
And so here we are, the last Sunday before Lent – a time of purging ourselves of all that clutter as we prepare ourselves for His Passion and Resurrection, of His new Life. A new life that is promised for us all.
One of my Lenten acts is to purge our house of all the extra that we don’t need, to give away what we can for others, to simplify and to remove the clutter in our house so we have a fresh, ordered space, and we can do the things we want to do.
And I am also making an effort to do this in my soul. To purge myself of all the noise, distractions, and stuff that clogs up my soul, preventing me from seeing God and so that I can clearly see His Glory not only at Easter, but His Presence in every aspect of daily life.
This is what Lent is about, and what we are preparing for. What can you purge this Lent, to make space for Him, so He can work?
