November 23, 2015, for others, signified Labor Thanksgiving Day. If you're Japanese, that is.
You know what November 23, 2015 was for me?
My annual Hide-Everything-In-The-Closet Day.
In other words, time for me to clean up my room. Now, as Mary Poppins would say, in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. For me, the element of fun I find in cleaning my room is when I write blog posts in my head. Very educational, I assure you. Even more educational than snapping my fingers and letting the bed make itself. (I've tried that, by the way. Doesn't work.)
I don't know if any of you have this problem, but often when there is a mess in my room (papers all over my desk, books piled at the foot of my bed, laundry scattered across the floor, and earrings and bobby-pins on my nightstand) for an extended period of time, I soon learn to ignore it. I work around it. After a while, I don't even see the piles of junk and laundry anymore. Yes, it hurts when I trip over an object that has blended into my carpet (and kind of looks like my old pair of rollerblades from two years ago), but I ignore the pain and keep going. Admirable of me, I know. I'm quite proficient at overcoming the
However, in spite of my blindness to my messy room, my eyes can be opened...especially when a friend stops by and wants to talk in my room. Oops. Excuse the mess. Here's a shovel; you can help me dig a path to my chair so we can sit down and have a chat. Want coffee? There's some in my room from two months ago, if you'd like.
Okay, so that's a huge exaggeration. But still! Once a minor problem, like books all over your bed, has been in your life long enough, you learn to "un-see" it.
On November 23, 2015, after I was finished with my room, I looked around and dusted off my hands with a satisfied sigh. All finished.
I was surprised when I came back upstairs later that night to find, right smack in the middle of my floor, a pair of old rollerskates that I sometimes used for decoration. How had they gotten there? I was shocked when I remembered that, several weeks before, I had decided to put the skates away for the winter since they seemed like too summery of a decoration. I had set them in the middle of the floor to "put away later"...and lo and behold, I'd forgotten all about them. But they were right in the middle of the floor! I stepped on them every night on my way to bed, and yet I'd never thought to put them away!
As I scooped up the skates and put them away (in my closet!), I thought of several other areas in my life that often get messy and neglected. The junk that infiltrates these areas is ignored until at last I can no longer clearly see the damage that is being done.
These areas are my emotions, my heart, and my mind.
When I hear nasty words and I don't immediately root them out, they stay in my head and repeat themselves over and over. When I allow unhealthy emotions in, they wreak havoc with my thoughts. When I let the desires of my heart be consumed with this world, and my heart is no longer focused purely and wholly on Jesus Christ my Savior, I become selfish and hateful. When I care about what people think of me more than I care about what God thinks, I get caught up in jealousy, pride, vanity, and covetousness.
A great passage about seeking Christ instead of this world is Colossians 3. "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry." (Colossians 3:1-5)
How much better is our life in Christ than the old one we used to have! But, with our sinful nature being what it is, how can there be victory over evil desires unless those desires are rooted out? And how can our sin be rooted out until we stop ignoring it?! Sin must be dealt with. It is impossible to have a healthy relationship with God when we make light of our sin and try to brush it under the rug.
You know what? It sure is a lot easier to keep up with your room if you just take care of the mess right away, without letting it escalate into a junkyard. Same with sin. When you meet it head-on and nip it in the bud (as Barney Fife would say), it becomes far less time consuming than a junkyard-level sin mess. Sin is addicting. It seems easy to just let it slide in the beginning. But that sliding turns into an avalanche, and before you know it, you're trapped!!
Instead of dwelling on the impurity and the lust and the vanity that is so rampant in this world, focus on a Bible verse that directs you back to Jesus! Have a person in mind to pray for every time you are confronted by sin. Run from it, don't stay and think, "It'll be okay. It's not really that bad."
Harmless snowflakes turn into snowballs, and snowballs turn into raging, destructive avalanches!!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus!
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glorious grace.
