Sift And Sort

Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. Psalm 32:5

I spent some time in my classroom the other day trying to unpack and get ready to start a new year.  After spending three hours there the best way to describe the way it looked as I turned off the light and walked out is “the cupboards threw up!” There were stacks of books, bulletin board fabric and border containers open and bulging out everywhere and piles of “things” on each available flat surface.  The chairs are all stacked in a tall pile and the computers are still draped in blue plastic bags with cords coiled into neat spools.  It looked so awful I’m not sure I want to go back!  It’s amazing how much faster and easier it is to pack it all up in June than it is to unpack it all in August!  It reminded me of a cartoon I saw recently that said, “I love vacation; it takes me 4 hours to pack and 4 weeks to unpack!”  It was a painful reality when I consider the task every teacher faces when it’s time to get the room ready to go for a new school year.

The reality of the piles and the mess will make it hard to go back in there on Monday but it just has to be done.  There is no magic spell or closet full of helpful elves that will sneak in under cover of darkness and get the job done so I’m just gonna have to buckle down and slug through it all.  I have to focus on the first morning I will walk in and see that shiny floor, curtains hung, bulletin boards finished and everything all in its place.  Eye on the prize kind of thinking I guess!  I suppose it’s all so uncomfortable because it causes us to tackle the undesirable and most of us would like to slink away from that any chance we can.  As I tripped over piles all afternoon I got to thinking about my bad habits and sinfulness.  I’d much rather avoid those than deal with them!  It’s pretty easy to take the bad stuff like my shortness of patience or my quick judgements and tuck them away like books in a closet but they need to be dealt with from time to time.  If I didn’t acknowledge the mess in my room and the stuff on the bottom shelf I wouldn’t really be ready for my best school year.  I suppose my eternal salvation requires the same attention.  I realized as I was dusting, sorting and organizing, it’s about more than supplies; it’s about my soul.  Every corner of my life needs some inspection, evaluation and action.  There are things I need more of and definitely things I need less of! 

When my room is ready I will waltz through the door with a light and cheerful heart but in order to get to that point I have to be willing to do the heavy lifting, the scrubbing and the sorting.  As I plopped down next to a pile of text books and school supplies I figured I’d better pay twice as much attention to cleaning up my soul and addressing the things that distance me from the Father.  Just like my classroom in June, it’s much easier to tuck it all away that pull it all out and deal with it!  I think I’ll take some time this week to treat my soul like I do my classroom in August…unpack it all, sort it and do what’s necessary to put it all in order!

A Seed To Plant: Pick a cupboard or closet this week to unpack and clean…after you finish with it, go through the same process with your soul!

Blessings on your day!