Cheri Strange, Christian Speaker and Author

     This summer has been a little weird at the Strange house. The kids are doing various camps and programs, my husband has a totally new work schedule to which we must adjust, and I’m trying to focus on writing during the days. The problem is that any normalcy was thrown out the window in June. Practicing the piano has been neglected. Watering the cat and taking out the trash in a timely manner has been neglected. Cooking great meals….well, let’s just say everything is neglected to some degree. In summary, my house is not running like a well-oiled machine these days.

     Yesterday I noticed stuff just lying around in almost every room. I’m sure it has been piling up for a while but I just noticed it yesterday. I JUST NOTICED IT. That was the shocking part. Not only do I like things put away – I NEED things put away. I think more clearly with clean. I’m less distracted when everything is out of sight (I’m all for bins – just dump it in – but don’t make me look at it). Ain’t nobody happy in the Strange House if Mama has to look at your stuff on the couch, table, stairs, bathroom, or where ever it doesn’t belong!

     It took the greater part of the afternoon to straighten and put away the clutter. The worst part was that a good deal of it….was mine.

     As I worked to put last week’s laundry away, replace about ten books back on the shelves, gather all the new school supplies to one centralized place, move decisively through stacks of paper, pick up shoes, earrings, and little girl hair bows, I questioned how in the world I hadn’t seen all this stuff?

     Answer: I learned to function AROUND it. I became so adept at working around it, the clutter that usually drives me batty, disappeared into the scenery.

     I do the same thing with sin in my life. Most of the time, I’m very deliberate in going to God with my failures and faults. I take seriously David’s plea to God in asking Him to forgive his hidden faults and also keeping him from willful sin (Ps. 19:12). But sometimes things just get a little weird – just like my summer. Before I know it, I have been working around unconfessed – maybe even unrecognized -- sin that has been piled up for a while. And I haven’t even noticed.

     As I put away my cluttered house yesterday, I spent the time praying that God would unclutter in my heart – asking Him to bring to my mind anything I have learned to work around, wrongs that need to be righted, and sins I am hardened to recognize on my own.  By the time I finished, I could see all my kitchen countertops, the pillows on the couch and the top of my desk! What a relief!

     We can get the same relief with uncluttering our hearts. “Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord," (Acts 3:19).

     Ahh….let the times of refreshing begin…