Do you have a “catch all” in your home? You know…that place where you put stuff that you don’t really know where to put. You throw it in the catch all. It could be a junk drawer. It could be the top of a dresser. It could be a nice, decorative bin that secretly acts as a hidden location to keep miscellaneous stuff. A catch all. I have one. Ok. I probably have more than one. Though I am doing better than I have done in the past, it can still be difficult for me to get rid of things. Anyway, I often need to find a place to put things that have no pre-determined place, no known spot for me to keep them. So, I put them somewhere, I put them in or on a catch all. Ok, I put them on my desk. My desk serves as my catch all. It serves as that spot where things go until they can find their true, forever home. My desk serves as the landing zone, that place where you can go to find anything from a battery to a knife to a screwdriver to a file to an unpaid bill to a receipt to a watch that needs repaired to extra cords for the stereo to loose change to…you get the idea. My desk often functions as a catch all.
Now, before we move on, let me describe my desk just a bit more. This way you can have a better picture of what I’m talking about. You see, my desk isn’t just some small, ordinary work station. It isn’t some minimalist’s dream. My desk is a beast. It’s gigantic. It is what is known as a “tanker” desk, and there is a reason for it. The thing is a tank. It is the tank. Made of steel in the 50s, that thing was built to last, and it is huge. Two big file drawers on each side. Smaller drawers above them. Little drawers on top of that, and plenty of surface space. I mean plenty of surface space. Lots of room to do whatever work needs done…right there on the desk. The thing is literally a tank, and I love it. The problem? Too often my desk is so overcrowded with the stuff that needs “caught” that there’s very little room to do actual work. If I need to do something on my desktop computer? Well, I have to shove some things out of the way or delicately rest my wrists on top of the piles of stuff to access the keyboard. If I wanted to use the desk’s surface to compose a letter or draw a picture? Well, I’d better allot some extra time to clear some room. More often than I’d like to admit, the desk looks less like a desk and more like a big pile of papers and junk with what might be a desk lurking somewhere underneath. It is a catch all.
Recently, we’ve been doing some reorganizing, some rearranging, and some remodeling. One of the things that we are currently in the process of tackling is my home office. It’s getting moved downstairs, and our bedroom is going into the office’s current location. In the end, it will be a nice change. But do you know what I had to do to make that change happen?
That’s right.
I had to move the desk.
For some unknown reason the desk did not fit into the plans for the new master bedroom. I don’t really understand why this would be. After all, who wouldn’t want some giant, messy tank of a desk beside them when they go to sleep at night?
It had to go. Downstairs.
Now, if you’ve ever seen people move giant desks, there are a couple of things that you need to do beforehand to make it happen. One, you need to acquire help. There was no way that the tank was making it down the steps with me acting alone. (There was a way, but it involved lots of things breaking…including me.) Help is necessary. Two, you need to clear off the top. A computer monitor, printer, piles of paper and an unmentionable amount of dust among other things would not stay in place as the desk is transported downstairs. The top needed cleared off before the desk could be moved. Three, you need to remove some junk. The desk is heavy enough by itself. Add the weight of two, full file drawers, two medium drawers, also full, and three other small drawers. Not going to happen. The desk needed to be emptied of some junk, some serious weight needed to leave before its trip downstairs.
Yesterday, the desk moved.
Help was acquired. The top was cleared. Junk was removed.
Do you know what I found?
I have kept a whole lot of stuff that I never needed to keep in the first place. My desk was holding a whole bunch of stuff that needed to find its forever home in the trash receptacle or in the box that is headed to the thrift store. Granted, there were some treasures mixed into the mess, some items that I’d like to keep, some things that are necessary to hang onto for a while longer. Still, by and large, most of the stuff that I had at one point thought was worthy of hanging onto really just needed to go. Most of the stuff that I had valued enough to hang onto for a period really just needed pitched. In reality, I needed to catch up on my catch all and do some releasing.
This type of thing happens to all of us. At some time or another we need to catch up on our catch alls and we need to do some releasing.
And I’m not just talking about a desk or a junk drawer.
I’m talking about all of the “stuff” that we carry around with us. All of the dust and the dirt, the batteries that have gone dead, the paperwork that is so old that it holds no value any more, the broken pen knife, the busted watches, the outdated tech, the spare cords that we might need if we ever buy a VCR again. We carry all of this around all of the time, but it looks a little different when it is inside of us. Unconfessed sin. Unforgiveness. Emotional wounds that we keep picking open and never let heal. Distrust. Judgements. Bitterness. Envy. Greed. Malice. We collect all kinds of things and hold onto them, thinking that they might one day be useful, thinking that we might one day need them. In reality? It is a bunch of junk, cluttering up the inside and outside of a desk, getting in the way of the desk’s true design, the desk’s true purpose. It is a bunch of weight that we need to let go if we want to get to the next step that God has for us in our lives. There are a lot of us who are walking around like a giant “catch all”, carrying with us everything that has ever been handed to us, forgetting that this is not our true design, our true purpose. Instead, we need to release. We need to release to God.
But, how? How do we do this?
I think some of the advice that I followed with moving the desk applies here as well.
One, get help.
Above all else, seek God. Ask the Lord to help you release any unnecessary weight that you carry, any burden that you are bearing that is not yours to bear. Ask the Father to give you the Spirit to help. God will. Look at what Jesus teaches in Luke:
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
~ Luke 11:11-13
God wants to give us help by giving us himself, his very Spirit. Ask! Ask for God to fill you, to renew you, to restore you, to remove those things within you that are weighing you down and are keeping you from being who God wants for you to be. Seek help from God!
As you seek help from God, remember that sometimes Jesus sends help in the form of another person.
Apart from a miracle, my desk needed some muscles to get down the steps. Help came in the form of a buddy who is young, willing, and in shape. Sometimes, to remove some of the things that plague us, we need God to provide help in the form of a person. Look at this advice from James:
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
~ James 5:16
Maybe you have been struggling with a particular sin of your past. Perhaps you know that you have been forgiven by God, you’ve confessed it to God, and you know that the blood of Jesus covers you. But, you just can’t seem to move past it. Perhaps, you need to talk with another person. Share with a trusted friend. Talk with your spouse. Seek the advice of a Godly, Christian therapist. Sometimes, God sends his help through other people.
Two, clear off the top.
Deal with the external behaviors of your life. Don’t keep on sinning in the ways that you have struggled with in the past. If you have an issue with drunkenness, stop drinking (& get help). If you have an issue with gossiping, stop. If you have an issue with ______, quit that behavior. What good would it be for me to sweep all of the dust off of my desk, put it in a dustpan, and then pour it back on the desk once I got it downstairs? Quit doing the sinful things that you know that you should not be doing. Clear off the top, the sin, the external behaviors that you know are unhealthy for you and displeasing to God. Only keep that which is good, that which is true, that which is beneficial. My desk should have a printer, a keyboard, a monitor on it. Those things remain. It does not need dust, dirt, and worthless papers. Those things go. Paul says it this way in his letter to the Romans:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
~ Romans 12:1-2
Be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Worship God with all of your lives, living unto him, doing that which is holy, which is good. Quit doing all of those things that take you away from the Lord.
Three, remove the excess weight.
This has already been mentioned earlier, but it is a good to remember. Get rid of the junk that you continue to carry internally. Let’s look at that verse again and what Paul said. “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Beyond just external behaviors, get rid of the internal stuff, the weight that pulls you down, the sin that binds, the guilt that holds, the unforgiveness that cripples, the desires that steer you off track. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, the renewing of your spirit, the renewing of your inward being. Be so transformed by the love of Jesus that you think like Jesus, you feel like Jesus, you listen like Jesus, you love like Jesus.
Friend, it’s time to catch up on being a catch all. No more can we live that way. Instead, we need to release. Release our lives into God’s hands. Release our brokenness, our failures. Our hurts, our pains. Our sufferings, our hardships. Release all of those things that keep us from being where we need to be. Do this by seeking help, by paying attention to the behaviors that you engage in each day, and by being transformed inwardly by the power of the Holy Spirit.
~ Pastor Chris
