This is Felicia Ferguson with Christian Mix 106 helping you Build Faith for the Journey.
I’m up to my elbows (literally) in packing right now. While I’m happily downsizing and joyously looking forward to what God has planned for the next season of my life, I’ve found I still have things I must do before I can finally and completely walk through the next door.
Packing is just one of those things. And it reality, it isn’t the first. No, the first was the sorting, the prioritizing, the culling. I’ve lived in my current house for almost six years, and in my current state almost 11. And as much as I sorted, prioritized, and culled with the two previous moves, I marvel at all of the stuff I still have.
Take my junk drawer for instance. When I pulled it open, I found SIX boxes of staples, SIX. Half of which are of mini-staples. And yes, while I do actually have a big stapler, it’s not like I regularly staple papers—in fact I rarely even print out anything anymore.
But isn’t that like our spiritual journey? We mature in our faith walk with God, trusting He is guiding us and has good plans for us. And yet, we still hang on to stuff from the past. But unlike my physical staples, our spiritual stuff comes in the form of memories, wounds, betrayals. And those are often slathered with unforgiveness and peppered with bitterness.
We don’t necessarily WANT to take those memories, wounds, or betrayals with us. But still there they are. Hidden away until we open our spiritual junk drawer and bring them into the light. And while discarding my overabundance of staples was a simple matter of dropping them in the nearest donation bin, our spiritual stuff can’t just be dropped off somewhere. In order to truly move on into the fullness of who God created us and is nurturing us to be, the junk has to be dealt with.
So take the time to inventory your heart and your history. Search out those memories, wounds, and betrayals and do what needs to be done. Do you need to forgive someone? Do you need to ask for forgiveness? Do you need to ask Jesus where he was when wounding happened? Take the time and do it. Then your faith journey, like my junk drawer box, will feel much lighter.
I’m Felicia Ferguson and thanks for listening to Christian Mix 106.