Cleaning out the Junk Drawer
(February 1 
On This Date:
1901- Winston Churchill makes his maiden speech in the British House of Commons.
(…why is he talking about maidens?…)
1929 — First Academy Awards are announced. (…the show never aired do to the first writers strike…)
2001 - Dale Earnhardt is killed in a crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500, which was won by Michael Waltrip driving in a car that Earnhardt owned. His son, Dale Earnhrdt Jr.finished second.
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On the Books:
In Wichita, it is illegal to carry a concealed bean snapper.
(…I can see the bumper sticks now: bean snappers don’t kill people, people kill people…)
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Facts from the other side of the island:
- The life of an eyelash is about 6 weeks.
- A greenfly born on a Tuesday can be a grandparent by Friday
- If you think of the Milky Way as being the size of the continent of Asia, our solar system would be the size of a penny.
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It is interesting that to me that every house has a junk drawer. And every junk drawer has certain items in it: Scotch tape, rubber bands, Elmer’s glue, a twist tie or two … and I think this is where my Phillips screw drivers migrate to from tool box when no one is home. Junk drawers by their very nature are difficult to keep clean. But it is a good idea every once in a while, to set aside some time for cleaning out the junk drawer. Let’s do it now, it’ll be today’s Fuel4theFire.
Just out of curiosity I went on-line and searched “junk drawer” and I actually found a how-to website on cleaning out the junk drawer. Seven easy steps…
- Dump out the entire drawer
- Throw away the trash
- Take out what doesn’t belong
- Sort everything else
- Find a drawer divider
- Sort items into the organizer
- Enjoy and maintain your new drawer
That is actually pretty helpful for more than our junk drawers; it may be helpful as we attempt to assess our lives. I think we can put everything we find in our junk drawer into three categories:
- Things that don’t belong to me. (things I borrowed or used / things that I don’t own)
- Things that I can throw away. (garbage … not worth saving / things no longer useful)
- Things that are mine but I need to organize. (things that have value in my life but need to be in their proper place)
The junk drawer may contain a tool we borrowed from the neighbor or a cookbook on loan from Grama. In order to reduce the clutter in the drawer, we need to return those to their rightful owners.
Life can be a little like that too. Sometimes we have stuff in our lives that really doesn’t belong to us. Maybe someone hurt you as a child, maybe your spouse left you or your parents divorced. Rejection, trauma or other kinds of injury may have befallen you in the past. Or perhaps there are people in your life that have made poor decisions. Sometimes we do the best that we can with our kids and they still make bad choices. And as we are cleaning out the junk drawer we need to give those things back to the person responsible.
If we were abused along the journey of life, we don’t have to live in that anymore. We can acknowledge the memory - after all it did really happen - nothing can change that. But I don’t have to own the responsibility for it. We can now give ourselves permission to enjoy our journey and walk in the newness of life that God has called us to!
Some stuff we can plain ol’ throw away; after all its garbage. Scripture refers to Satan this way, “…the accuser of our brethren … which accused them before our God day and night” (Revelation 12:10). There are some lies that we have bought into; sometimes for many years; that belong in the circular file. “I am a loser” I can’t do anything right” “Nobody loves me” “God can never forgive me after what I’ve done” “No one cares” “I have nothing to offer” “I’ll never be successful”.
Cleaning out the junk drawer requires us to throw away the garbage - and that is exactly what that stuff is. Would God say those things to us? Would our Heavenly Father create us flawed and tarnished and useless? Those are lies that come from the father of lies (John 8:44).
There also past failures in out junk drawer. As long as we have confessed them and repented, we can toss them too. Here is how the Psalmist put it; “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12). The question is sometimes asked why the Holy Spirit did not inspire the writer to say the north from the south? But there is a reason. When you picture a globe; and you begin to head north, you will eventually reach the North Pole and then you begin to head south. As you go east on that same globe, you will never begin to head west …. As far as the east is from the west … that is how far He has removed our sins from us! How far is that? From one nail scarred hand to the other.
As I reach the final phase of cleaning out the junk drawer, I have returned the things that do not belong to me and I have thrown away the garbage; that leaves us with things that have value in our lives. These are the things that are beneficial to my well-being, they are useful and helpful and worth hanging on to. But in order to maximize my potential and minimize my frustration, I do need to organize them. If they are worth holding on to - they are worth keeping in there proper place. Even good things can get out of balance in our lives and become bad for us. Don’t let the urgent squeeze out the important. Don’t allow the chaos of life to prevent you from dealing with the essential. So get a drawer organizer and keep first things first. And I’m not just talking about cleaning out the junk drawer.
There ya go - it’s just that easy. Now enjoy and maintain your junk drawer.
That’s today’s Fuel4theFire. And remember … I love you guys.
Tom
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