I looked around my house, post-Christmas, and thought to myself “What a MESS!” Our normally tidy and minimalist home turned into a LEGO sanctuary with glitter and cookie crumbs hidden in way too many crevices.
Every year on December 26th, I have this urge to de-Christmas and get things back to their normal state. Every ornament, and every light, has a home they need to return to. There is so much Christmas debris in the form of presents, treats, and fake pine needles that need to be gone. I want to get rid of the mess, but it feels so overwhelming to tackle.
I don’t know about you, but this post- Christmas mess can easily be a metaphor for my life. Sometimes I look at my circumstances and I get overwhelmed with the mess of it all. This was not the plan and things are not pretty or tidy. Instead of LEGO and cookie crumbs, I am dealing with bigger issues like bitterness and insecurity that I have allowed to seep into the crevices of my heart. I can find myself dwelling on disappointments and losing sight of beauty or focusing on losses and devaluing the great lessons learned through them. This kind of mess can be overwhelming too.
So where do we begin addressing the mess? Just like the LEGO and cookie crumbs, the mess is not going to go away without taking some action. I wish I could just vacuum away the trash of my heart, but the reality is that I need to put in the arduous work. I need to acknowledge my disappointments, discouragements, and frustrations. I need to fully SEE the mess. Then I need to let God lead me towards healing and truth. The cleaning part is never fun, but the reward of a clean home in the end makes it worth it. I truly feel the same about the heart work we put in. We come out with a great reward...inner peace and a better perspective.
God,
I pray that, as I navigate through the messiness of life, you will do an incredible work in me. May I be open minded to the purging and cleaning I need to do in my own heart, and may I be compassionate to others who are on the same journey. Amen.
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