Taking out the Trash

I have a confession to make…I’m a recovering packrat. When I was younger, I used to want to hang onto everything because you never knew when you would need it later or want it for the sentimental value. This diagnosis was supported by my closet in my childhood home being filled with computer paper boxes of stuff. When I went home this past break I majorly cleaned out the closet. I gave 3 trash bags of stuff to Goodwill and threw out 5 bags of garbage. Other self-proclaimed packrats out there would agree that this was monumental people! And you know what? It was actually kind of freeing. Yes, freeing.

 I also found some old journals in my closet while I was going through it. These journals date back to high school and college. Going through them was hard because it took me back to the state of anxiety that I lived in at that time. I almost felt a little claustrophobic or trapped just reading them because I could feel the anxiety exuding from those pages. As I was reading them, I thought this USED to be my life, but it is NOT anymore. And you know why? Because the Lord is the best trash taker-outer I know. Yes, I just made up that word, but it’s true. He took the trash that I had been holding onto and He freed me just like cleaning out the closet and throwing out each bag of that trash was liberating. As time progressed in those journals, the change in my relationship with the Lord is evidenced, and it is beautiful. I still deal with the anxiety, but in such a different way. It is not debilitating, paralyzing like it used to be. It is becoming background noise in the story of my life. I am so thankful that I released the junk I was hoarding away to the Lord, so He could take out the trash and set me free.

What trash are you still hanging onto that you need to allow the Lord to take out?

Look at that empty space!