It all started with dog puke.

What a statement. What a way to kick off the new year.  See, Papa started something in me a few months ago... a purging of excess life. Excess in everything, being eliminated one step (and sometimes two and ten) at a time. This weekend, we started on my room. Dun, dun, dun....

Surely I'm not the only one who saves the bedroom for last. Last to be cleaned, organized, even thought about. I hate cleaning our room. No, that's not it, exactly. It's that there's so much chaos and clutter, I don't know where to start. There are random piles and boxes of stuff that we've been collecting and laundry that needs to be hung up and life... messy messy life that we live every day and can't seem to get a handle on. Our bedroom is the dumping ground for everything else we can't find a place for or don't have time to deal with. As a result, it's a big ol messy mess. Kinda like me.

"My bedroom is the perfect example of my life. Awesome.  Papa... I really didn't want to put that one together. I was pretty content just leaving it alone. Do we have to go there? Can't it wait just a bit longer? There's so much there. It's going to take forever to get through! I'm really not ready to go there... Ohhhhhhh-kay, if you insist."

And He did insist. We've been dancing around the bedroom for a couple of months now. He would whisper or nudge. I would find something else to work on, some other way to avoid. Something would always come up. Until.....

It all started with dog puke.

We have a six month old puppy, who likes to eat things she shouldn't, as six month old puppies do. Unfortunately she's a 30 some odd pound puppy, which means big pukes when whatever she has eaten doesn't agree with her stomach. Tons of fun, haha. Saturday was one of those days. Who knows what she ate, but it came back up. Five or six times... bleh. Not a fun way to start the day. Since I still looked like I'd been on a month long binge, I decided not to go to church. Ben left about two, and I was thinking about what I would do with the day. The kids were playing nicely for the first time in a few days. Hmmmm.... Then... that lovely sound.. Dog puke happening.

Puppies are like little kids, in that you can't convince them that there are alternative, more convenient places to puke. Like the bathroom, or outside. Or.. oh, no, not my bedroom... aw man. Come on. Gag!! Ok. Gag!!! No worries. Ugh...

Then Papa said..... Get busy. It's time.

Uhm.... what? Now? Ok. Well I guess I will start right here, with the dog puke and work my way out.  I started sorting and throwing away and hanging up. Vacuuming and dusting and eliminating all the excess. The kids were awesome, and even came in and helped some, but mostly stayed out of the way and happily played together. He started speaking to me throughout the eight hours or so we worked. WE worked. Not me and the kids, me and Papa...  For, as I worked on eliminating the excess in my room, He worked on eliminating the excess in my life. Showing me that all of this crap I've accumulated through years of just stuffing it aside to deal with later has to come back out at some point. It has to be dealt with. It has to be sorted into piles: worth keeping, clutter that can be given away, or trash that needs to be thrown out immediately.

Memories of good times and things/people that bring joy are worth keeping.  His instructions to us are worth keeping. The love He has brought us is worth keeping. This is the easy part. Seeking those treasures is exciting and makes us feel good. That's the part we don't mind doing. Clutter that can be given away are those relationships we've held onto that hurt us, the conversations we need to have that we avoid. Clutter like those inflicted hurts from people who may not know they hurt us. This is a little more difficult to do. Who wants to admit they are hanging on to something that they don't need, but want? Why would we even do that? Because it's comfortable, easy.

We hide behind the clutter, so that no one will see our trash.

We put up walls, erect monuments to hide our idols. If you see the clutter on the surface, then maybe you won't look deeper and see the trash. Papa is the King of breaking down walls and destroying our erected monuments of failure.

He goes right to the trash, and says.... See this? This is not from Me. This is something you've brought into the story, and it has to go. See that? I gave you that as a gift, but you have bastardized it, using it for your own glory and not Mine, as it was intended. And this little thing here that you are trying to hide from me? Silly child, don't you know, I see all? I know all. I know it's there. I know you don't think you can live without it, but I know that you can. I did not intend for this to be in your life. I want it gone, and I am cutting it out now. Yes, it's going to hurt. Yes, it will leave some scars. Those scars will remind you that I love you. They will heal, and when I am done, you will be the person I see. The you that you are meant to be. Trust me as I lead you to be the person I know you to be.

 I would love to say the room is all clean now, but there's still some work to be done. With me, it's a process. I tend to get overwhelmed if the project is too big. Sometimes I need things to move slowly in order for it to be most effective. This is something that drives me crazy about myself, but right now it's just clutter. I'm sure it'll become trash soon, and I'm sure there's some trash I missed (or avoided). But sooner or later, this will be a finished project. Sooner or later, I'll be able to look back at this and marvel at the lessons He taught me. For now, it's one step at a time. One day at a time. Hopefully next time, we won't have to wait on the dog puke, and I'll listen the first time He whispers to me.....




So where is He leading you? What's your bedroom? Are you willing to let Him tear down the walls and destroy your monuments? Don't be like me and wait for the dog puke. Talk to Him today and ask Him into your bedroom. Start sorting the piles, seek His love, find out what treasures He has in store for you....