stevemayner.com

I hate clutter.

I guess it was the way I was raised. My mother was and still is the most fastidious person I have ever known. My dad comes in a close second. Growing up, everything had a place, and everything was expected to be in its place. It seemed extreme when I was a kid, but now, not so much. In my family of seven I'm the minority when it comes to this neatness streak. Over the years I've loosened up and relaxed my own OCD tendencies so that I can peacefully coexist with a tribe that definitely does not share my thoughts on this topic. I've even allowed myself the "luxury" of clutter in my personal space.

But alas, such moments are only temporary. I eventually reach a point where I just can't take it any more, and I transform into "Mr. Clean"... the "white tornado" (for all you 1970's ad buffs). Most of the family knows how to recognize when this metamorphosis takes place, and has learned just to stay clear.

Such a moment took place this weekend. It started in the funniest way. I looked down at the set of keys I carry in my pocket every day. It suddenly hit me that on this key ring that I have carried with me for years... literally around the world... I regularly used only two keys. The car key and the house key get used daily. The rest... as I looked at them I realized I had no idea what any of them went to. One of them was almost identical to my house key, and would be the one I'd invariably grab in the dark at the front door as I would attempt to unlock it. In this moment, a life changing thought came upon me... why don't I simplify my life, eliminate some clutter, and carry only the two keys I use each day? It was a liberating experience. I went from the key chain to the top of my end table, through drawers that had an untold amount of long lost junk. There were a couple of interesting, nastolgic, even sentimental items that I uncovered, not the least of which was the original receipt from the jewelry store for our wedding rings... faded almost beyond recognition. Most of the stuff however was just junk, and quickly found its way into a garbage sack. Now my end table and those drawers containly only a few truly useful things, and I can find them quickly when needed instead of digging through mounds of junk, or not finding what I need at all.

On my drive into work this morning it dawned on my that bedroom drawers are not the only areas of our lives that are subject to the clutter monster. Our calendars can become cluttered with time robbers that eat up priceless minutes of our lives that once spent can never be reclaimed. How many things do we stuff into our daily routine that in retrospect are going to amount to nothing... time clutter that chokes out the opportunities to spend our limited time on truly meaningful things?

Then there's the financial clutter. Most of us do not have unlimited resources, I know we certainly don't. If we were to look through our check register in the same way I looked through those drawers this weekend, what expenditures would amount to meaningless clutter... purchases that one day we'll look back on with wistful regret on what that money could have been used for (remember the final scene of Schindler's List?).

Time clutter and financial clutter are fairly easy to fix. Much like physical clutter, it just takes recognizing the problem, doing some cleanup work, and applying discipline to keep the clutter from reappearing. But there are other kinds of clutter that are a little more difficult to deal with.

We also have mental, emotional, and spiritual clutter. This baggage is tougher to deal with because it's all buried somewhere in the mysterious neural network that makes each of us who we are. It's harder to recognize, and definitely harder to clean up. You can't just fill up a garbage sack, or stop making stupid purchases, or cancel meaningless activities. Even if you identify it, you can't just discard it.

I've been going through a period of my life these last few weeks where I've had to face the reality that I have become entangled in a mound of emotional clutter created by circumstances in my life... mostly of my own choosing. The funny thing is, even though I recognize it, doing something about it has been very difficult.

There is wisdom from ancient scripture that can help... if I (you, we) open up to its advice. Jesus in the gospel recorded by Matthew told the crowd, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) Carrying emotional clutter is exhausting. It makes every day a monumental effort just to put one foot in front of the other. It's like trying to run through waist deep water... you have to expend tremendous effort just to move a short distance. I find it liberating to think that in following Jesus' prescription for this condition, the only requirement he places on us is to "come." It means recognizing that we can't do anything on our own. If we "come," he will "give." Release from our emotional clutter is a gift, but like any gift we have to be willing to accept it and take possession of it in order for it to be truly ours.

In the days ahead I'm going to be focusing my clutter elimination efforts on this admonition from Christ. I'm going to go to him and do all I can to just let him take it all from me. I have to believe it's the only answer... my solutions haven't been working so hot.

In the meantime, if you come to visit us in the next few days you might want to steer clear of the kitchen. I just opened a drawer...