Sitting with the Lord during this Urge to Purge season. And as I mentioned I’m committing at least an hour each day to work on this mess I allowed to happen in my closet. Well my new hangers came in. They are smooth and velvety and sturdy. I bought some before that didn’t hold up so I was particularly selective about these new ones. Make sure they can handle the weight of certain items.

So anyway, I’m sitting on the puppy steps in my closet to be closer to the pile of wire and plastic hangers on the floor that I need to sort. (Also wondering how I’m gonna get up from this low seat but I digress) I’m picking up each hanger and making sure they all face the same way and thinking I’m just gonna throw them away. True story, as I’m sorting hangers I ask the Lord what do you want to teach me while I’m working with these hangers. Some were broken and bent and useless but the majority of them were in good shape. My first thought was to just put them all in this plastic bag and throw them away.  Then I thought who would want them? Goodwill came to mind. There is one close by maybe they need hangers. So I carefully sorted out the broken and bent ones for trash and organized the better ones to donate somewhere. 

After a day or so I came to my SWL chair and thought about the message with the hangers in relation to my inner life purging. The thought came to mind, “Out with the old but not so old.”Because the old doesn’t necessarily have to be broken or twisted stuff. Sometimes the old is just stuff that no longer has a place in our lives. It was last season’s stuff. We miss what God wants to change or restructure in our inner life because we think if it’s not brokenness or twisted stuff then we don’t need to let it go. But sometimes inner life purging means releasing things that just no longer belong in our minds or deserve our energy. Sometimes Inner life purging means passing on old knowledge and lessons to someone else that can use it. I’m just now in this senior season getting how God has used me in situations sometimes. I’ve come to consider myself as a start up type person. Always had a gift for planning and organizing ideas so that they can be implemented. Putting structure around it. And then God has often moved me out of the process right when it is going well. After what I considered to be a result of my hard work. It’s been painful to leave sometimes. And out of my control many times. And very unfair in my opinion. And I’m the the type that will stay until the door is irreversibly closed. Only to watch that idea to continue to flourish under someone else’s tutelage. I’ve often resented that person that came behind me as if it was their fault or they stole something from me. One of the conversations in my book says, “hold onto things loosely.” In other words maybe not hoarding stuff that can be used for good in other situations. Don’t get me wrong I believe in intellectual property and it should be protected. But when God allows a door to be shut. We’re talking about a deeper purge not surface work. Not just making things look pretty but releasing things to be useful somewhere else. Not just dealing with the surface issues because there is always a root cause that goes deeper than what meets the eye or rises to the surface.

Wow, don’t know how I gleaned all that from this hanger situation. But I guess what the Holy Spirit is purging me of is releasing the old but not that old stuff and instead of resentment, celebrate that I had a part in something that can still be useful elsewhere. It’s not mine, it’s ours. It’s His to pass through my hands or head (ideas) onto other situations for the betterment of the kingdom. Not saying that we shouldn’t have ownership for our efforts of course we should and God wants us to feel good about our work. But not everything is meant to stay in our closet. And some things that appear to be old to us need to be passed on to whoever can use it. So Goodwill or other thrift stores, I have some hanger for you. Special delivery from my closet to yours! My prayer, Clean Me Up Lord!

Just sharing my daily musings over the last few days. Whenever we arrive to our purging season, let the Lord have his way! More fruit, less stuff! John 15