Surrounded by heavy clutter Hebrews 12:1-2

Hebrews 12: 1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Cup of coffee, receipts, Burger King crown, mounds of papers, Relevant Magazine, stapler, cords, box of tissues, cup of pens, rubber stress basketball, masking tape, a Gideon pamphlet, three ink pens, calculator, space heater, princess crown, notebook, three devotional books, business card, car keys, purse, note cards, Vacation Bible School lesson plans, and a DVD i am showing for Bible Study on Wednesday. These are just a few things i have on my desk right now. It is a wonder that I even have room on my desk for my laptop.

I am surrounded by clutter. I am a clutter magnet. I am not proud of it. I have taken large steps to overcome my cluttering. I love the feeling of having a clean desk and a clean office. When I am surrounded by clean instead of clutter things are so much clearer and it is so much easier to work. So then there is the question that has to be asked: Why do we clutter? If it feels good to work in clean... why do I surround myself with clutter?

Clutter happens! (It really should be a bumper sticker). Clutter is not something that you create intentionally.. it happens over time. Over time I accumulated far too many useless things on my desk and then chose to push it off to the side instead of putting it away. After i finish writing this blog, I fully intend to sort through these things and decide what needs to stay and what needs to be put away. What is essential to the productivity of my work and what slows me down.

What if we did that in life? What if we listed everything that is in our lives and then figure out what is productive to our walk with Christ and what is slowing us down? When I have studied this scripture before, I always think of strong addictions and burdens that slow us down. I always thought of the big events that served as a dark cloud in my life instead of the small things I have accumulated over time. I think i have more clutter weighing me down than really big life shattering events.

What are you surrounded by? I love the thought of being surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses. A huge crowd of people running the race with me. I am so blessed to be surrounded by an incredible church family, lots of amazing friends, and great family. Sometimes I am distracted by all of my clutter that I am not able to run the race fully with everybody.

Sins and other priorities take the place of our crowd of witnesses. Piece by piece gossip, guilt, and physical clutter sits in the way of my faith productivity. I focus on huge pile of clutter in my life and get overwhelmed that I don't realize that I need to just sort out each piece and think about how it is contributing to the productivity of my race with Christ.

We are all invited to run the race whether we want to acknowledge it or not. The only difference some choose to run the race with 10 pound ankle weights of clutter, some stand at the starting line waiting for their calendars to clear up so they can fully commit to the race, and some run with a slow and steady pace cautious of every step that they take.

How do you run the race? What are you surrounded by? Do you have clutter in your life that you need to go through piece by piece? Maybe its time to do a little spring cleaning for Lent. I am adding it to my To Do list right now :)