I reckon it's time to clean house

Books, strewn all over as if there is a ten page paper due tomorrow and there’s 9 ½ pages to go. Spoons, sitting in bowls covered with the remnants of who knows what. There’s a bottle of Equate ibuprofen, diet pills and Axe Effect and an empty Gatorade. A few advertisements, a couple bills and some random papers lay intermingled in. Then there’s the camera used for the above picture to take your mind where you imagination cannot quite reach. Funny thing is that’s just the dining room table. I haven’t even reached the rest of the room.

There’s a lamp located not to far from the middle of the room. Towels, phones, flashlights, dirty plates, a $15 skateboard and an old donkey skull line the room. But the oddest has yet to be mentioned. A 3.5 horsepower mower sits as the centerpiece of the room. Sounds quaint, right?

Let’s move to the kitchen. There are pots and pans and plates lying around just begging to be cleaned and put away. If we move down to the recreational room, you’ll find an oversized, 50” television as the center of your attention. The randomly placed objects left in the oddest of places will finally catch your attention as you are able take your eyes off the TV screen.

If we move upstairs, you will be graced with shirts, gym bags, day backpacks and storage containers that haven’t moved the entire time I’ve been here. If you go straight ahead, you’ll find a bathroom where… Well, I think it would be better we don’t go in there. So, go to your right and you’ve reached the masterpiece of all cleaning disasters, though at times it has miraculously improved. It has never been immaculate, but at least improved. Here’s been my demise. While making efforts to clean, the laundry has been my reoccurring enemy. I will neatly fold everything and put it away after being sick and tired of not being able to sit down, walk around or find anything. Next thing I know, there’s more laundry to put away again. See, I don’t have any problems washing it and drying it. It’s the folding, ironing and putting away the clothes that I absolutely despise for some strange reason.

I reckon it’s time to clean house. I have no one else to blame and I cannot expect anyone to do it for me. There is one specific reason: No one can. The reason being, despite what the picture shows, I’m not referring to the house. Instead, I’m speaking of my life.

Just like my laundry, I am notorious for starting a proverbial “clean up” project while failing to complete it. I start out all zealous and excited, but like a candle burning 3 wicks at both ends, my enthusiasm too often curbs quickly.

Is there a reason? Why do I, over and over again, start up but never finish? Is it just “the way I am”? Or is it a shortage (or maybe a total lack) of faith?

I would venture to say the issue is brokenness. I want, what I want, when I want it. Did you catch that? If I want it, I take it. If I want to, I do it. When I want to do it, I act immediately. I must, by the working of the Spirit, be broken of my pride. That is what unbrokenness comes down to. It is a stiff-necked spirit.

Deuteronomy 10:16-17

"So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe."

Pastor Dan once told me about how he broke his arm. I think he was playing football or something. The point is, it healed all wrong. It was never properly set. He was advised that it would need to be rebroken and reset. This would be more painful than the first. If he didn’t have it set correctly, he could function, yes. However, he would have discomfort especially in physical activity. He still to this day has yet to get the procedure done.

To borrow the phrase from some of my friends, “Dave, you’re just not right.” If they only knew. In order to be properly functional, there needs to be a sort of re-brokenness. There needs to be a house cleaning in my life. This comes, first and foremost, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This comes through prayer and a humbling (funny thing is, that comes from the Spirit too). It also comes through daily meditation and delight on the Lord and His Word -- renewing the mind. It comes through a constant battle over the flesh.

So, I find myself, and I hope you are doing the same thing, praying what I believe Steve Green has said best, “Whatever it takes Lord, do."