Yesterday I moved on to (what I hope is) the last step before the serious clean up begins. It was time to sort the newspapers. I have this fetish where I collect newspaper articles. I don't really have a good way to store them (suggestions welcome), so they get heaped onto my desk that has officially been unusable for at least the last five years.
The newspaper clippings started innocently enough. An article I was mentioned in for honor roll or tennis. The obits of someone I knew. A review of concerts I'd attended. Then it exploded. Anything that struck my interest and would probably still be talked about in a few years. John Glenn orbiting the earth again. When my friend (and several others) died in a bus crash that made state-wide news. The year my town was pummeled with tornado warnings and flash flooding for two solid weeks. The bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi in Minneapolis. Yep, September 11th. You name it, I've got it.
As long as I was in charge of my project, it was controlled. To an extent. It's when other people started helping that it turned into a ten-inch heap of newspapers. Since she knows about (and shares) my hand-washing passion, my aunt saved an article in her hospital's newsletter about their new game plan for cleanliness. My grandma saved every paper that mentioned a movie filmed in her town and gave the stack of papers to me. Somehow I've got a rather thick collection of "Brett Favre's retiring" (and un-retiring) papers.
I don't clip as many articles as I used to but that doesn't mean I'm ready to part with the ones I have. Mom got involved. "Katie, you know how to wash your hands. You wash them at all of these times listed and then some," she said, throwing my anti-hospital-aquired infections article in the garbage. She also threw away programs to the music festival we've attended for the last eight years and the TV Guide from when Ty Pennington was on the cover promoting Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
It hurt. But it was necessary.
Often times, that's how God calls us to clean up our lives. Trim away the unnecessary newspapers about what our life used to be like. Pitch and purge anything unusable. Despite sentimental attachment, sometimes things must go. Behaviors, thoughts, ideas, companions. It is extreme makeover: life edition and it's more painful than extreme makeover: bedroom edition.
Yet I know every paper cut I have obtained was worth being able to sit at my desk again to write. Is everything you must let go of worth being drawn closer to God? Wash your hands of the aspects in your life that aren't growing you closer to Him. Sit back and let Him work.
Take a few minutes and watch The Skit Guys skit on this idea. Even if you've seen it before, watch it again.
God bless,
<>< Katie
PS: It's my future roommate's birthday today. Love you, Jennifer!
3 comments:
Clean, woman, clean! LOL Does your future roommate know that she is obtaining a clutter roommate? WEll done on attacking this...I know I have some of these issues waiting for me, too, tucked somewhere in the basement and the crooks of my office desk. Ugh.
This was a great entry..exactly what I needed to read. Thanks Kax. :) And don't worry, my junk is all over; I still have my notes from multiple classes from last year scattered throughout my room.
Ah, I've given up on cleaning my room. I embrace the mess - and keep my door shut so the parents don't notice. ;-) I've never heard of the Skit Guys before - watched the skit, loved it, now I want to watch more of them!
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