Summer is just behind us, which meant family
reunions, long road trips, and... vehicles crammed with enough junk and
electronics to keep a short-tempered family occupied for … five minutes.
Then, just when we reached our end and
it feels like every brain cell had been stretched to oblivion, we arrive home
late, glance around at the mess all around us and realize we have to unpack the
junk. Which is what most of it is. Cheap, overpriced trinkets your kids had to
have, empty soda cans dropped on the floor, half eaten granola bars littered
everywhere.
For you to clean. It’d be easier to rent
one of those high power vacuums; suck up every last tidbit and crumb. If you
had even an ounce of energy left.
So
you put it off, lugging out the essentials and leaving the rest to rot. Which
is what bring you back to the van with your gas mask, gloves and vacuum
cleaner.
The term “pay now or pay later” arose for a
reason and it applies to much more than moldy beef jerky shoved between seat
cushions.
Pause for a moment and take a deep breath.
Smell that? That’s your innards, friend. Unresolved wounds festering, begging
to be dealt with. Before the spores of bitterness invade all that’s good and
pure and lovely.
How long has it been since you’ve
surrendered your heart to God for some deep cleaning?
There’s a song I love, though I haven’t
heard it in some time. It’s called “Suitcases”, and you can listen to it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4cFZcSivZI
Through the lyrics, Dara Maclean tells us to drop the baggage holding
us down so we can run toward the victorious life God plans for us. I love the
idea of shucking off the gunk of our past, but I don’t think it’s as easy as
dropping our luggage on the roadside. Often, to truly grab hold of our freedom
in Christ, we need to start with a bit of unpacking.
We need to sift through our typical
responses until we get at the feelings buried underneath. Or more accurately,
we need to allow God to expose those heart-shielding barriers that get in His
way. Otherwise, we’ll continually dredge
through life with a gin-and-bear-it approach, lingering on the edge of
transformation without ever experiencing the full metamorphosis.
This road to transformation begins with an
honest, heart-felt prayer, modeled for us in Psalm 139:23-24:
“Search
me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Our
actions, reactions, and perceptions are often the result of our past
experiences. Sometimes this is obvious. You burn
your hand on a hot stove. This motivates you to cook with care the next time.
But other times, figuring out the why
takes a bit more searching. Hence David’s prayer.
The Hebrew word translated as heart in
verse 23 is lebab which means: the mind, heart, will, inner man. This is the
deep chamber of our being—where we attempt to hide our fears, wounds, and scars
.
Sometimes even from ourselves.
Only God sees it all, but it doesn’t drive
Him away. Instead, it draws Him to us. His greatest desire is that we let Him
in, cooperating with Him as He searches our hearts and minds with the care of a
trained surgeon slicing out cancerous tumors.
This journey of unpacking, of allowing
Christ to bring us to wholeness, won’t be easy or painless, but it is
necessary. If we want to experience true and lasting peace.
The choice is ours, and it begins and is
sustained by surrender.
Jennifer Slattery writes missional romance
novels for New Hope Publishers, Christian Living articles for Crosswalk.com,
and devotions for her personal blog, JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud and the
Internet Café Devotions. Her debut novel, a romance about a security-seeking
bride who longs for purpose must face her deepest fears—including the wounds of
her past—to find it, is currently available for pre-order at a discounted rate.
You can visit Jennifer online at http://jenniferslatterylivsoutloud.com
or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte
Beyond I Do:
Will seeing beyond the present unite
Ainsley and her fiancé’ or tear them apart.
Marriage. It’s more than happily ever
after. Eternally more.
Ainsley Meadows, raised by a hedonist
mother, who cycles through jobs and relationships like wrapping paper on Christmas
morning, falls into a predictable and safe relationship with Richard, a
self-absorbed socialite psychiatrist.
But as her wedding nears, a battered woman
and her child spark a long-forgotten dream and ignites a hidden passion. One
that threatens to change everything, including her fiancé. To embrace God’s
best and find true love, this security-seeking bride must follow God with
reckless abandon and realize that marriage goes Beyond I Do.
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