Clean House

It isn’t any kind of rumor that I allow clutter to well…clutter. I have an amazing ability to set something down and not pick it up again till sometime closer to the Eschaton. I also have developed the ability, through rigorous training mind you, to look past the clutter and sit at my desk to get my work done. For those of you that have seen my office over the past month or so are probably wondering how I can ignore the calamity. I don’t like it. As much as I don’t want to admit it, the ability to clutter is one of my worst attributes (can I get an Amen from my Mom?).

I didn’t say all that to simply point out something that many of you have probably been pointing out for a while. I just wanted to come out and say that I do actually come to a point where I finally look up, see the clutter, and desire to do something about it. I’m at that point now and I think Haggai got me there this past week.

In my last post as we looked into the Minor Prophet Haggai, we found God was a bit upset that His house wasn’t built because everyone was too concerned with everything but Him. The challenge from this is that God wants to sit on the Throne of your Heart but often we try to put the wrong blocks in the wrong holes, things get all messed up and we’ve left Him have left no room to sit. The God’s House image carries on to my clutter problem. Most of you don’t share my clutter problem as far as stuff goes but do you share the problem that most of us have of a cluttered schedule? I would venture to say that we all have a few things that we could cut out to de-clutter our schedules. Think about some things that you could quit for this month in order to de-clutter the Throne Room and put God back in His place in your heart.

The few times I have watched T.V. in the last year I’ve watched the show “Clean House.” I think I enjoyed the show because it made me feel good. I’m not nearly as bad as the people they get to be on this show. Some of the things these people hold on to are unbelievable. They plead, beg, yell, scream, and even from time to time they bribe these people into getting rid of their junk. Five years from now you won’t be missing that bellybutton lint collection…just give it up! At the end…it all works out. The house looks amazing. The turning point in the show is when they make the people get out of the house so they can actually get their work done (insert spiritual metaphor here).

Sometimes we need someone to come in and convince us to get rid of the junk. Not just in our houses or offices but in our schedules. We need to de-clutter all areas of our lives so that God can move back into His house. Summer is a great time to make changes in schedules. Get up thirty minutes earlier and have a cup of beverage of choice with God. Cut out one of your TV shows and go for a walk with God. As a family, go off for quiet time and get together to talk about what you read. Do it for a month and see how your life changes. I wonder if we stepped out of our “house” for a time and let God do His thing…would He help us get rid of our clutter? Let’s clean house!

Whose House Is This?

I had a cool little game as a kid that I remember playing at my Grandparent’s house. I’m sure they have some updated version of this game with flashing lights and sound effects but I guess I was on the cutting edge of awesome games since my blocks weren’t black and white. Anywho…this game was a simple one. The game consisted of a box with different shaped holes and inside the box there were shapes that would fit inside each hole. The object of the game was to be able to figure out which block went inside which hole. It was rather complicated. From time to time I’ll still drag it out and see if I can finish it.

I remember my old youth minister talking about how there is a “God shaped hole in your heart that can only be filled by God.” It always reminded me of that game I used to play with the blocks. Every once in a while I’d see if I could fit the round block into the star hole just to see if the tables had turned…you never know about those things…but it never worked. We spend so much time trying to fill ourselves with things that are not God and no matter how much we push, the blocks just don’t fit.

I think C.S. Lewis said it best in Mere Christianity, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” We are constantly chasing desire after looking for things that do not measure up to God only to find out that He is what we need. God wants to be seated on the Throne of Your Heart but the problem is when He gets there He usually finds it already occupied.

I decided this week to pick a Minor Prophet and camp out there for a while. Haggai has been my focus in my reading this week and has spoken so loudly things I needed to hear. The LORD spoke in 1:5-6, “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

Israel has been trying to put the wrong blocks in the wrong holes for a while now. They can’t figure out why things won’t add up so God goes on to explain it to them in verses 7-9, “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored. You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.”

God used to meet His people in His house, the Temple. Now His house is inside of us through the Holy Spirit. The challenge question is when you break down your day to day activities, how much time is spent building God’s house?

Did God Get Bored?

Did God get bored? This question has come up from time to time in regards to God creating us. If God is eternal…what was he doing before He created us? Did He get bored one day and decide to start a new project? There are a lot of things that are assumed when questions like this are asked. Last week I talked about God being the Creator…creating from nothing and how this sheds some light on the mystery of God. My hope is that through unpacking these questions (or mullinating on them as Dan would call it) we will catch another glimpse of the mystery of God.

What is eternity? Some would say that eternity is a limitless amount of time. With this definition there is a lot of room for boredom within the realms of eternity. This definition also opens the door for questions about our eternity. Another way of defining eternity is: Timelessness, without time, outside of time. I feel like this is a better definition because it is something that we cannot fully comprehend.

What would it be like to simply exist? To have no tomorrow? No yesterday? To live in the eternal now? Boredom couldn’t be defined because it would not exist. I don’t know if this helps explain why God created us but it helps us see that we weren’t created out of boredom. If God did create us because He was bored one day then He probably wouldn’t care much about what happened to us. We would just be another 2nd grade school project thrown together with colored tissue paper and some Elmer’s Glue and tossed after it started falling apart three and a half weeks after creation.

When the world started falling apart, because of us running away from our creator, God didn’t cast us off. He wrote His story all around us. He made things beautiful for us. He provided for us. He loved us. When we did everything we could to run from Him, He kept on loving us. He even went as far to make Himself as one of us to show us how to live. We repaid Him by killing Him in our deep refusal to have true life. He didn’t create us out of boredom…if He did we wouldn’t still be here.

I’m not sure if this opens up any windows into the mystery of God…maybe it makes Him more mysterious. I am not real sure why a God so amazing and powerful, who lives in the ever present now, would create time for us to live in, provide so much for us, when we’re going to turn around and throw it back in His face. That, to me, makes a mysterious God even more amazing…and I’m glad He did it all for me, not because He was bored but because He is love.