Cleanliness does not equal Godliness

The other day I cleaned my office.  This might not seem like a big deal to you, but it is a major deal for me.  Because clutter doesn’t bother me, my organization style involves piles, and once I put something in my file cabinet I never think about it again—I don’t clean my office very often.

I literally have said “I only clean my office when I have nothing else to do” to several people who have made comments about my messy office.  However, this time I had to clean my office because I have a ton to get done.

Lately my life has felt incredibly cluttered.  As I have been reading through my book doing the final edit I realized how much I needed to learn from my own writing.  My own priority list of identities I am fulfilling is long and out of balance.  My frustration level was at epidemic levels, and I was running on empty.

I needed to take a break from my life, even if just for an afternoon, and was not getting to it.  Every time I walked into my office the clutter and mess actually did bother me, because it reminded me how much I had to get done and how I wasn’t cutting it.  Honestly I felt like I was running two hours behind for everything and not fulfilling anything.

It took me a few hours to clean and organize my office, and it provided me a much needed break.  Since I never clean my office, it was like a deep breath for me.  Going through old files, shelving books, and purging my piles made me realize things were not as bad as they seemed.  I realized much of what I was feeling was coming from expectations, worries, and assumptions I had made about or put on myself—just like the mess in my office.

I have heard and said it before that sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.  For me this past week the most spiritually significant thing I needed to do was clean my office.

Not only did I finish that day with a clean office, but also with a cleaner perspective.  Will my office stay as clean as it is right now, not likely.  But God was trying to get my attention about the unhealthy perspective I was carrying through my day to day life, and did it by something bothering me that normally doesn’t.

Is God trying to get your attention about something in your life?  What is bothering you that normally doesn’t?