Go Clean Your Room!

May 10, 2011

Dear St. Paul’s Family,

Let me be the first one – and likely the only one – to wish you and yours a Happy National Clean Up Your Room Day. That’s right. It’s a day wholly designated to encourage people to clean up their rooms. I have no idea about the origins or authenticity of the day, as I found out about it perusing some national holiday websites whose reliability is impossible to gauge. All I know is that it takes place one day before “Eat What You Want Day” (May 11) and one day after “Lost Sock Remembrance Day” (May 9) which are two deliciously whimsical ideas for holidays, if you ask me. [1]

My hunch is that its origins came from some parent tired of pleading that their children tidy their bedrooms, and decided to concentrate a whole year’s worth of begging into one 1/365th of the year. However the observance started, I think there’s something endearingly quirky about a day dedicated to cleaning your room. It’s a chance to start anew, jettisoning the old, and breathing in freshness and purity.

I’ll confess that one of the shows that Jessica and I tend to watch during our cravings for mind-numbing, brain-candy television is called Hoarders: Buried Alive on The Learning Channel. Every episode, a camera crew chronicles the lives of people around the country whose psychological and mental condition renders them unable to throw out garbage, do basic cleaning, and prevent mindless accumulation of more and more material possessions. One time, we watched an episode in which a woman could not step foot into her house, let alone walk to her bedroom, without climbing over mountains of junk and refuse. Another man was forced to sleep in his office every night, because he developed an emotional connection to the thousands of rats that had taken over his home.

Don’t ask me why we watch these shows. Part of it is our odd fascination with people who live in these conditions. And part of it is the comfort that comes from realizing that the mound of laundry awaiting our attention is not as bad as it could be. Regardless, I think it’s fair to say that most, if not all, of us could use a National Clean Your Room Day now and then.

Don Aslett, bestselling author of Clutter’s Last Stand: It’s Time to De-Junk Your Life, offers many helpful steps on how to cut through the clutter in one’s home. He suggests that when faced with a mountain of possessions that are not of every day use and can not be readily stored, you take three large garbage bags and one large box and mark them as such:

· JUNK: Put in that bag items that are trash, broken, or no longer necessary.
· CHARITY: For items that you could give away to family, friends, or donation agencies.
· SORT: For items that you can sort through at a later time, one month from now.
· WITHDRAWAL (the box): To store items that you can get to if you really need them. But after a year, if you have not needed to open the box, throw the whole thing away.

The process may sound simple on paper. But for those who have difficulty working through their clutter, such efforts take determined decision-making, with no room for regrets or second-guessing. Purging through our homes can be a painful procedure, but it is necessary to keep a life that is sanitary, functional, and healthy.

Reading Aslett’s advice got me to thinking about how these principles can be applied to our spiritual lives. When John Wesley was standardizing the format of the small groups that met as part of his Methodist renewal movement, he came up with the following questions to guide people in sorting through the junk in their lives. When people gathered for these meetings, they would ask each other to respond honestly and openly to how they are doing in each of these areas, holding each other accountable with love, and without judgment. See how you might do with these questions:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I'm better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on what was told to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying or self justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else about my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what I am doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?

These are great questions, which you might choose to make a daily part of your devotional and prayer life. All of us have junk to sort through. All of us are hoarders, buried alive in thoughts, habits, and perceptions that are blocking the free flow of God’s love in and through our lives. Perhaps there is no better day than National Clean Up Your Room Day to start cleaning up your act, and allowing the power of God to make you more like Christ today than you were yesterday.

Happy Cleaning!

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
http://www.cherokeespumc.org


[1] http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/May/cleanuproomday.htm



WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY
We continue our sermon series called “Strength for the Tough Times” with a sermon titled “Safety from the Shepherd: A Faith That Comforts,” based on 1 Peter 2:19-25.

MAGREY PREACHING AT MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE
I have the honor of preaching this Friday night at Morningside College’s baccalaureate service. The service takes place at Grace United Methodist Church adjacent to the Morningside Campus and begins at 5:30. We are delighted to have our very own Michele Witcombe among the graduating seniors.

ST. PAUL’S ACHIEVES THIRD MILE STATUS
For the third year in a row, St. Paul’s has attained the highest level of giving to local and global missions through the Iowa Conference’s Rainbow Covenant Missions program. We are one of only 16 churches in the district to reach this goal, along with paying our apportionments and district asking in full. Thank you, St. Paul’s, for putting God’s love into action!

HOT DOG DAYS
Join us on Thursday and bring your appetite! For the first time, we will be participating in the Cherokee Chamber of Commerce’s Hot Dog Days event, and you can stop by our station in front of the church for free hot dogs with all the fixings. The fun starts at 5pm until we run out of hot dogs, and we will be giving out promotional material to the kids for our upcoming Vacation Bible School.

RUMMAGE SALE
The church-wide rummage sale takes place this Saturday and Sunday, from 8am to 4pm. Most items will cost $1.00. To contribute to the sale, please bring your items to the church and place them on the tables in the hallway.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL REGISTRATION
It’s not too late to register your child for another thrilling Vacation Bible School. It takes place from June 13-17, from 9am to 12pm. It is for ages 3 to completed 5th grade, and the cost is $7, which includes a t-shirt. Scholarships are available. Contact the church office to register.