Is it spring cleaning time for you?

In my home growing up, every spring meant one thing: It’s was time to clean! And I’m not just talking “run the vacuum and mop the floors type of cleaning.” Oh no, that was set aside for ordinary Saturday chores.

Spring cleaning meant everything got washed and scrubbed from top to bottom. The curtains came down for a good beating outside followed by a run through the washing machine and pressing. The walls got wiped down with a damp rag, including the baseboards. Beds were stripped, linens washed, mattresses flipped. Last but not least, winter wardrobes where shifted into storage to make room for spring and summer clothes.

Honestly, I thought this was normal spring routine until much later in life when I discovered that it was only typical for old-school Italians and maybe a few other nationalities. Imagine the shock I felt when I realized the average American family gave up spring cleaning long ago . . . and I was perfectly ready to join their modern-day approach. Let’s just pull a few weeds, plant a few flowers, and call it a day!

At least, that’s how I felt until I read Anne Ortlund’s, Disciplines of a Beautiful Woman. As I soaked up her eliminate and concentrate principles, I realized that I could modernize spring cleaning with a more purposeful perspective.

Why not take time every spring, and maybe every fall, to do a deep cleaning with a purpose of purging of the excess in our life?

Building on the margin principle as it relates to time, I realized it’s a worthy endeavor to not only carve out time in my schedule but to make room space in my home!

It’s literally a mission to find breathing room in our closets and drawers, on our shelves and in our dwelling places. Although it might seem like a daunting task, I actually look at it like a holy pause . . . a time when I stop life “as is” to accomplish a necessary soul-refreshment by not only clearing out space in my life but by connecting with God on purpose as I spend purging and cleaning time listening to a sermon series on a podcast or a worship playlist.

Oh yes, there is something good about surrendering all our stuff to the Lord while inviting our hearts and mind to dwell in a place of worship.

Eliminating and concentrating is a mindset shift. You give up the habit of needing it all and needing it now, while deciding what to allow into your and keep around for the long haul.

These aren’t arbitrary decisions. They are based on scriptural principles as you consider how your stuff can become a hang-up rather than a blessing, blocking you from joining God in the work He has for you each day.

So, how about joining me this month in some spiritually-rich spring cleaning?

Let’s wipe down walls and mops floors while asking God to purify our hearts.

Let’s dust the furniture and nourish it with lemon oil, as we ask God to show us how to soak up Word even more purposefully.

Let’s clean out the closets, giving away what we haven’t touched all season, and ask God for wisdom to discern what commitments must come off our plates.

Let’s pull out the spring and summer wardrobe while seeking God to show us the clothing He wants us to wear each day.

Colossians 3:12 NIV 
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Yes, I’m all about focusing on decluttering the excess from our closets and spaces throughout our home and workplaces, but how about we make it about more than just an organizational undertaking?

How about we treat this mission as a spiritual act of worship by asking God to speak to our hearts, too, and change us from the inside out?

 

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