There is a wedding shower at our house on Saturday.  It's for a bride who is marrying one of our church people in February.  I get to do the wedding.  Some weddings you look forward to doing and this is one of them.  My very best hopes go out to them for a long, happy life.  What is difficult now revolves around all of the preparation for the party.  The last few weeks are one constant cleaning after the other.  No house is probably ever spotless but we are coming close.  Who knew that mopping could become a competitive sport?  One good thing is that when spring cleaning time comes around we will already be ahead of the curve.

Throwing stuff out is also one of the regular chores of the last few weeks.  I spent one day just gathering up stuff to take to the local dump.  Our garage received two separate cleanings over the last few months.  There were things that never moved from the day we arrived at the house.  Filling up the back of my truck was easy once everything was culled out.  I probably found even more to take to the trash at a later date.  My needs are fairly simple.  Holding onto items is not a great temptation of mine.  My guess is there will never be a need for intervention for any hoarding tendencies.  Everyone probably needs to make time to clean out that stuff from time to time.  Some items may be treasures but sometimes we just let the junk pile up.  Cleaning house may not be neat or easy but it does allow us to find what really matters.

You can see where this is going.  Spiritual house cleaning is a basic part of being a mature believer.  Stuff we may think is valuable may turn out to overload what God wishes to be doing.  David would just live his life for about a year before confronted by God about the junk clogging up his heart.  We tend to overlook or not share God's values when it comes to what matters and what does not.  Busyness is often a substitute for actually being open to God's word.  Even going to church is no promise of our heart being honest with God.  We are learning about the life of Jonah lately.  He is a successful prophet of God who fails to allow his heart to share divine values.  His story is one of God giving him a good cleaning out of the mind and heart.  It may not end happily ever after but we can learn from his mistakes.  Learn to take your cues from what God deems as significant.  He knows far more about your heart than you realize.  You may discover that what you thought mattered really only gets in the way of growing.  It may not be easy but it is always worth it for eternity. 

Bro. Trey