So I have lived my life fairly consistently in that I have a faith in God, believe in Jesus Christ His Son, that He (Jesus) died for my sins (and the sins of everyone in the world) … and yet I have failed to grasp the reality of this concept that I am made new in Jesus.
In this my 50th year of living I feel that it is truly my year of Jubilee ~ in the Bible the year of Jubilee is a time (and it happened every 50 years) when debts were forgiven and you were allowed to have a fresh start. (my interpretation please read the bible for yourself and see what God reveals to you).
As I was saying, I believe this is “MY” year of Jubilee. I feel as if I have been given a fresh start. All my debts have been forgiven (that is those debts I had with God not with man) and now looking at my way of living I realize it is beyond time to “step it up” and make the changes in my habits that have been holding me back from living life to the fullest. I admit to the fact that I do not or rather have not lived my life to the fullest. I admit that I settled for the bare minimum, with the occasional abundance.
Looking at my living room today, knowing I still need to finish furnishing it, I can see how vastly different living will be in this room! Before I did not have a “place for everything” and therefore did not put “everything in it’s place” instead my room just got cluttered up and then piled up and then overflowing piles took over half of my living room. The truth is that “Knowing” and “Doing” are two separate things!!! I may have known my clutter needed to go but actually making it go didn’t happen!
In fact right now my kitchen is housing the majority of my clutter. The remainder is upstairs along with a lot more “stuff” that needs organizing, evaluating, and eliminating. My goal is to have my house in order before I travel this November. I need to seriously look at things and decide will I really miss it if it’s given away? Will I be able to replace it? Will it cost me more to keep it or replace it should it really be needed at a future point in time? Yes, I am going to be brutally decisive with all of my “things” and I will “possess my things” and not have “ my things possess me”.
I was looking at the kitchen table, currently covered with stuff. Half of the table seems to be holding old VCR tapes, empty CD cases and items that were filling my old computer desk & hutch. Why? Why did I keep the old tapes? Why did I keep the empty cases? Why … why… why. Why ask WHY???
Instead I chose to look at today as a new day and instead of asking why to all of the above (and so much more) I will chose to evaluate the stuff and if I’m wondering why I have it in the first place you can be sure it will not be in my house much longer!
So in this my year of Jubilee I now have a fantastic incentive to break the old habits that inhibited me from truly enjoying life the way God intended. Now I will look at things on a different level. I will evaluate things with a different standard. Work smarter not harder ~ which means maintaining the clean rooms instead of putting off until tomorrow what I can do today! Yes I’ve declared war on my old habits. Knowing I can change because of Christ in me. Becoming what He wants me to be in all ways not just the comfortable ones. I am no longer going to call myself a “clutter bug” nor will I refer to myself as a “pack –rat” ! Instead I will simply be and continue to be a new creation in Christ. Thank you God for your mercies that are new every morning
Absolutely beautiful, Anne. So often we get caught up with our things and the "things of this world" and entangled and trapped (our things having us, rather than us having things) that we forget that this world is not our home. We are called to better things and to renew our minds (sometimes hourly, in my case) and set our minds on things above. It's amazing how pervasive the fallen nature of humanity really is. It's like an onion, so many layers. We just have to keep peeling them away. My next birthday is my 50th. 30 didn't bother me. 40 didn't bother me, but I've always pondered how I would do with 50. I think I, too, shall make my 50th my Jubilee!! (Not sure which name is gonna show up on this post, lol, but I give it a definite 2 thumbs up!! Joanne)
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