Chaos and Clutter

Hello neat freaks...how's your clutter? Oh you may say..."Rodo...I'm a neat freak...I have no chaos and clutter in my life." Hmmmmm...maybe...on the outside...but how is the inside of your life? For me personally...when my outside is cluttered....usually I have chaos and clutter on the inside...BUT sometimes... when everything looks cool, calm, collected...with no chaos and clutter...I'm a wreck on the inside. Notice the first collage. This is a picture of my office. It is a "HOT MESS". Be sure to click on the collage to get the full blown effect of my clutter.

Over the last 37 years of marriage and prior to that 4 years of courtship...I have gone from watching manly movies...to watching the Home and Garden network... the Style channel...the Cooking Network...thanks to Brenda. Give the woman control of the T.V. channel...and she controls the world. I have found that I enjoy watching shows about first time home buyers...cake designers... fashion interventions and the like. Forgive me John Wayne...for I have sinned. One show that we watch is a show called CLEAN HOUSE. This show is where they find messy, cluttered homes...do a yard sale...and revamp the house. Nicey Nash, Trish Shure, Mark Brunette, and the "Go to guy" (can't remember his name)...come in and deal with all of the "mayhem and foolishness" of the clutter...with some psuedo-pop-psychology about why the people live in a mess.

A couple of years ago...a missionary to Guatemala...came and spoke to our church. Kirk Devenny is always a powerful voice in a chaotic world. During prayer time...Kirk prayed for me and Brenda...and spoke a prophetic word...for us to clear out the CLUTTER IN OUR LIVES. He was speaking of the physical clutter and the spiritual clutter in our lives.

We recently had a yard sale...where we cleared out our shed...of clutter. We would literally open the door to the shed...and you were met with STUFF. It was a modern Fibber and McGee closet where Fibber would open the door each show (on their radio show)...and you would hear the clutter from the closet fall all around and on him...burying him under the clutter. NOTE: I love old time radio.

Well...that was our shed. On my vacation...after a couple of days in Chattanooga...we spent it...in the hot, humid days clearing out the clutter and then selling the clutter. We even had a a pile of trash to be taken away to the dump...that people were buying out of...YIKES. One man's trash...really is another man's treasure.

The thing about CLUTTER that turns into CHAOS...it does not happen overnight. I don't wake up one morning...and say...I think I will incapacitate my life with clutter. I think I will hoard things to the point of chaos. It is a progressive ignoring of my mess...that one day overtakes me like THE BLOB (the movie with Steve McQueen and Anita Courset/Helen Crump). It starts out small and then overtakes...until it consumes you. What to do...what to do?


It all starts with a CHOICE. God does not violate our will...our volition...our free choices. He will allow us to have CLUTTER and CHAOS in our life if we want it. He will allow us to succumb to temptation...sin...and walk in the flesh if we desire it. That's not His heartbeat for us...it is not His will for us...BUT...we have the gift of CHOICE.

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you LIFE and DEATH...the BLESSING and the CURSE. So CHOOSE LIFE in order that you may LIVE... you and your descendants." (Deuteronomy 30:19) NOTE: Choose order or choose chaos... choose clutter...or choose room.

"Now, therefore...fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, CHOOSE for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living...BUT as for me and my house...WE WILL SERVE THE LORD." (Joshua 24:14,15)

I find myself serving the god of CLUTTER. Not just my junk...but CLUTTERING my mind with everything from the world, fear, doubt, unbelief, negativity, the "I Can't" mentality.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY...

What to do...what to do? I'm glad you asked...I have got to clear the CLUTTER OF MY MIND. I need to RENEW MY MIND....I need to quit CONFORMING to the mold of the world mindset...and be TRANSFORMED in the RENEWING MY MIND. (Romans 12:1,2) I need to develop a new MINDSET...that will give me life and peace versus death. (Romans 8:5-8) I need to do like Bob Dylan...I've got to CHANGE MY WAY OF THINKING...FIND MYSELF A BRAND NEW SET OF RULES. (Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming). I not only have to change my thinking...I've got to change my speaking...and change my doing. I need restraint so I can be free.

UNRESTRAINED THOUGHT (what I think)...produces in UNRESTRAINED WORDS (what I say)...resulting in UNRESTRAINED ACTIONS (what I do). Also...like the people on the show CLEAN HOUSE needs help...so do I. I need the HELPER...THE PARACLETOS... THE ONE CALLED ALONG SIDE TO HELP...the HOLY SPIRIT to HELP in this DECLUTTERING OF MY physical...and my spiritual life.

Love and Uncluttered Kisses
Rodney "Clutter...What Clutter" Boyd