So I spent today hanging out with my kids and doing stuff around the house. The day climaxed with a trip to Wal Mart and the purchasing of a shelf for my much maligned work area. My work area consists of a little Wal Mart wooden tray, a small bookshelf, a lamp, two Rubbermaid file boxes, and a trash can. And now a shelf that I keep the video camera, camera, all of our cords, coin rolls, calculator and guitar picks. Oh, and a screw that I put in the wall that I hang the mp3 player and my headphones on. So you haters of my work area can to take a long walk off of a short pier. I'll bet your homework areas are a disaster!
As I was saying, I put this shelf up. Which entailed getting the drill out and finding the studs to put the screws in. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. So as I'm looking around for things to put on my shelf, I realized that, I'm going to need another shelf. (This is not a devotional thought on having too much stuff. So don't try to read in to where I'm heading....) So much of our stuff just sits around because we have no room to store things. So as I saw the opportunities of putting things on my shelves, I began to get excited. Why? I was solving the problem of our family's disorganization. And instead of getting angry with Jeni or the kids because I've misplaced this or that cord, now I have a place to put them. And I just had a thought. If I get a second shelf, I can stretch my speakers up high and create surround sound in my little office area. Oh, the possibilities in a 6'x6' area! Haters, see the above suggestion in reaction to your opinions.
So as I'm putting stuff on my new shelf (and pondering the wonders and possibilities of a second shelf), I begin thinking of the problems in our area. So many to name. This morning alone, as Jeni and I were walking and picking up cans on Hill between Layer and McCord, we found a syringe and several beer cans. Seems that the drinks of choice for Holland/Springfield drivers are Bud Light and Natural Light. I think the world becomes like our home sometimes. Our home tends to get cluttered with stuff. There's just so little storage space. I have certain ideas on how to keep the place clean, Jeni has an idea and the kids just don't care. So often times, we kind of do our own things. Our world is in such a state of disaster. So many problems. We look at the mess and I think the enemy then whispers in our ears that it's just hopeless. It's just too big. We can't fix this.
Yet, if we look at our section of the world as a room, all we need is a vision of what to do and the people to get busy, what we couldn't accomplish! We have so many churches in Holland. And so few are working together. While the churches are in the room with the clutter, I think they are a part of the clutter. Why? Jesus said, "If you're not with me, you're against me." Jesus wants His room that we've messed up, cleaned up. And He's not going to clean it up for us.
In church on Sunday, I was announcing to everyone about how fundraising for the mission trip is coming. Btw, we now have more than $1000 in the bank. One person has actually given me money as a deposit to go. That is $1000 brought in through cans and the change for change deal at church and the candy sales. $50 has been already knocked off of the price to be paid by everyone. So, as I was announcing this, a newer lady in our church raised her hand. I thought that was odd. Her question was, why are we going to Chicago to do some work when we have such problems in Toledo. Great question. We're going so that we will know how to do something in Toledo! If we're not willing to start putting things on shelves and cleaning up God's room, things will never get better.
How are you doing? Are you cleaning your own house? Which, in turns, cleans God's house because one more person is not only NOT messing up the room more, they are cleaning up theirs and others' mess. I'm listening to some Dido stuff tonight. She does a song called Slide. I think it was on the Smallville show. Good song. It basically talks about the things that function as distractions to us. Boyfriends or Girlfriends. Anger. Pride. Frustration. Lust. Past decisions. All of these things distract us and take our eyes off of God and cause us to slide away from Him. We've got to decide to turn completely to Him and quit sliding. More coming soon....