Morning Devotional

October  25, 2005
"Clutter" (Part 2)     
    by Don Emmitte

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"When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, `I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation." (Matthew 12:43-45 NLT).

Yesterday, I talked about the need to unclutter our lives. The more I thought about that, the more I thought that I needed to go a little further with some practical steps. A few weeks ago, Kyle and I began our project to build an entertainment center for his home. It is an ambitious project that has stretched itself out over several weeks. I must admit, though, it is turning out very nicely. It might have been easier to purchase one, but the dimensions we needed to accomplish the goals of putting the equipment safely out of reach of the inquisitive hand of Faith and Logan demanded that we build it ourselves. It made a lot of sense for me to move my equipment to his house and do the construction there. His garage is bigger than mine and we wouldn’t have the problem of transporting the final project by building it on site.

However, it remained that we make a little room in his garage. In the corner there sat an old water heater that had been replaced last year. It wasn’t really in the way until now. Being heavier than one person could lift, it was necessary that we find time when both of us could be off and that the dump is open. That turned out to be a little more difficult than you might at first suspect. We did schedule the project. We got the directions to the dump and loaded the water heater in the back of my truck. Off we went. After arriving, we found it to be no more difficult than backing up to an area for appliances and unloading it. Kyle remarked, “If I would have known that it was going to be this easy, I might have done it sooner.”

There’s your first step to cleaning out the old habits and clutter of your spiritual life. Focus on what needs to go and then take it to the dump! You’ll find that that it is a lot easier than you thought to get rid of it. Just one example… perhaps you need to develop a better attitude about work. So, first step: take the bad attitude to the dump. Lord, let your presence take this attitude away from me. Refocus my attention on good things today; even when it seems like everything is going wrong around me.

Easy, right? Well, there is a second step too. Remember to fill the space with good things. On your way to work listen to some Christian music. Talk to yourself with positive thoughts. Of course, more drastic actions might be necessary. Maybe you’ll need start searching for another job. Perhaps there are issues that cannot be controlled in the present environment. But, those are decisions to make after you clean out the old clutter of the negative and replace it with the new uncluttered positive attitudes. Give it a try.