I am not one who normally likes to get rid of stuff.  I hang on to everything because think I may need it someday or because it has sentimental value.  Lately I have realized that all the stuff I have been collecting for the past 25 years has been bogging me down so recently I have been cleaning things out.  Today I cleaned out my bedroom closet.  Over the past few years I have been many sizes.  My weight has fluctuated up and down a lot.  When I first started gaining weight I would save the skinny clothes just in case I got skinny again.   I would then lose weight and save the bigger clothes just in case I would gain back the weight and need them again too.   The next thing I knew its 25 years later and my closet was overflowing with clothes.  I am not sure how it happened because it happened so gradual that I never really noticed that it was getting way out of control.  I do have to admit my closet could have probably been on one of those hoarder shows on the HGTV channel.
In the past I would try to clean out my closet about once a year but never really could manage to remove much stuff out of it.  Mostly I think I just straightened stuff up or moved things to storage boxes.  But not today, today I truly cleaned out my closet.  I started with the skinny clothes.  The first thing I noticed is if I really ever to become a size 7 again will I really wear puffy sleeves or zippered legged pants?  I really don’t think so unless the 80’s roll around again and if they would I am not sure I am ready to put on something that looks so uncomfortable as tight legged pants.  What was I thinking back then?  Next were the sweaters.  Big giant bulky cow necked sweaters, really do I need all that bulk dragging  me down?  The large clothes were next to go.  I just do not need all that extra weight pulling me down and wrecking my health anymore.  Shoes were next, gosh, do I have a lot of shoes! I got rid of the scuffed and un-shiny ones first and then the shoes that did not fit anymore.  I am not sure why,  but my feet have grown a whole size over the past 20 years.  I had shoes to go with every outfit that I had just took out of the closet anyway.  I do think maybe I could be a shoe-aholic if there is a such a thing.  Nobody needs as many shoes as I had.  I am not really sure when or how I managed to accumulate so much junk in one little bitty closet.

As I was cleaning out my closet I began thinking about my life.  I realized that lately my life has been like cleaning out my closet.  As I cleaned it was kinda like walking through my life. I saw things that brought me back to different time periods, times that are over now.  I have moved on in my life now leaving the past behind.    A few years ago to everyone else I seemed to have it all together but really I was a sad lonely woman.  I had everything I could ever want but not everything I needed.  I knew I needed something but never could find it.  I was always striving for something.  I tried to find it in my job, I was always thinking if I could just make it as this or that I would be happy or if I made more money I would be happy.  I would go shopping and by lots of clothes because I thought new clothes would made me happy.

About two years ago I found what it was that I needed.  It was Jesus.  When I accepted Jesus into my life I did not know it at the time but he was going to be helping me clean out my life and that would eventually lead to great joy.  Today as I was cleaning I realized that cleaning out my life is kinda like cleaning out my closet.  In my life I had a lot of stuff lying around from the past that needed to be gotten rid of.  Thankfully I had Jesus to help me clean it out.

When I first met Jesus I thought I had my life all together but the more I got to know him the more he began changing me.  Like the closet things inside were to crowded and had began to become overflowed with a bunch of stuff that I did not really need anymore.  I had way to much clutter which left no room for anything new.  Gradually piece by piece he began to help me go through the stuff finding what did not fit anymore and tossing it away.  He began removing the old junk, junk such as my bad habits and lying.  He also helped remove the bulky junk that was in the way and wasted a lot of my time, things  that were stopping me from doing what was important.   Next he tossed out the old stuff from the past, stuff that only weighed me down.  He showed me how to forgive and move past it.  Then like the shoes, the shoes that were not shiny, instead of tossing me like I did the shoes he began to polish me, making me shiny and new,  He helped me by getting rid of the dirt and the grim I felt inside.  He began to open my eyes to the world around me  by helping me remove the piles of junk so I could truly see.   I have always had a life full of blessings and now I can see them.  The clutter is gone and I am free.

John 8:36  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Thanks for reading and God bless you 🙂