Lessons From a Messy Room
Move from Striving to Surrender
When my daughter was young and learning to be in charge of her room cleanliness, it was quite a struggle. I would send her to her room with the general “go clean your room” instruction, give her what I assumed was an appropriate amount of time and then peek through the door. Somehow, the room was more of a mess than when she began. More clothes were strewn everywhere, and she was in a new outfit that she had to have taken from the closet…trying on shoes.
While going through this exercise one day, a bit frustrated, it struck me how she reminded me of my sister when we were young. My sister’s definition and my definition of “a clean room” were vastly different. With my daughter singing from her bedroom, while trying on another clean outfit from the closet, I picked up the phone.
When my sister answered, I said,
“Okay…pretend you are 4 and mom has sent us to our rooms to clean them, but somehow yours ends up messier. What would help you to clean your room?”
To which my laughing sister said,
“Your not going to believe this, but go make her bed.” She continued, “When you make her bed, it gives her a starting place and a clean room will happen. But without it, the chaos is just too much, and trying on clothes is the easier path.”
It worked! Upon entering her room and assisting her with making her bed, she gained new vision and focus and cleaned the room completely, even changing outfits a couple of times along the way!
The messy state of my daughter’s bedroom is the perfect picture for the human mind. Ideas, thoughts, memories, tasks, perceptions, judgements, plans, failures, successes, accomplishments, insecurities, doubts strewn about in piled heaps or shoved in overstuffed drawers and closets for access when needed. And let us not forget the unmade bed–no place to rest. How many times have you been physically tired and when you lay your head on the pillow, it is your mind that runs the race to keep you awake? Have you ever startled awake only to find your mind is already darting from task to fear?
The Mind…It is battlefield number one and we are so warned in the scripture.
Paul warns, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6 ESV
Shame and fear, our inheritance from Adam and Eve, come naturally to us all. None of us are exempt from the ways of shame or the weight of fear, its humanities state since the Garden of Eden. Within each heart and mind we learn to use them as weapons to survive in this life. But there is a better way…Jesus offers the Better Way. Our inheritance in Christ is superior to Adams gift, but it requires an active daily choosing.
It seems that Christian disciplines like prayer or bible reading and trying to hear God speaking to you (and He IS speaking to you) would set things right, bring peace. It is your thought life that bombards with distraction to confound the moment. It is pure messy chaos with no clear path for order and when it becomes overwhelming, we look for an escape, and the world offers so many.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 1 Corinthians 5:17.
The Lord of the Universe does not use shame and fear, getting us to an expected end. He is not angry or disappointed at us for being overwhelmed by our own chaos. Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock…” and we invite Him in to help us make the bed, go through the piles, set things in order, and bring peace and grace to our hearts. We must learn His voice in our lives, seek His ways, sense His presence, follow and obey Him, have conversations with Him, explore Him, learn from Him, delight in Him…as He delights in us.
I believe we are in a time in the Kingdom of God where we are being called to embrace a higher level of our New Creation Identity. Shed the ways and layers of learned religious busyness for the sake of your pride. Invest your time in the bible for getting deeper revelation of the Majesty of God, not just memorizing it. Make prayer time a continual conversation with your Creator, rather than a laundry list of desires. Tune your awareness to Holy Spirit that His Voice gets MORE attention than the voice of the enemy or even your own internal voice. Exercise the command to “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;” [2 Corinthians 10:5 ERSV]
I was reading Isaiah this morning and came across these beautiful words. (Italic emphasis mine)
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded (OVERLOOKED) by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary (STRIVE); his understanding is unsearchable.” (Isaiah 40:27-28)
The power of the chaos of the human mind can leave us feeling “overlooked by God.” What I think God is saying to us here is you feel overlooked because you are trying to connect with me through shame driven striving that has made you weary, and He doesn’t live there. Take a step out of the shame and fear that you are familiar with and jump into the unknown. Connect with your creator in the deep wells of wisdom that you do not understand. Take a step of faith. You can trust Him! He created you!
It’s time to move from…
Striving & shame to Surrender and See!
In Faith,
Kammy
“Cease striving and know that I am God…” (Psalm 46:10 NASB)