I spent the majority of my day cleaning out my mom’s garage. I don’t know about you, but going through old stuff and cleaning out space in not my cup of tea. Although it’s not a favorite pastime of most people, it is necessary. I got a good look at what I think we need to do in our lives from time to time.
I spent the day on this project because we have to move out of our townhouse by the end of this month. Without knowing for sure when we will be handed the keys to the house, there had to be a place to move all our stuff temporarily. When I started on the garage there wasn’t much room to walk, so there definitely wasn’t enough room for any of our boxes. It just so happened that most of that stuff was mine. Now that everything is organized (and a lot is thrown out), there is probably enough room to move our whole house’s worth of boxes in. It wasn’t an easy task, but we’ve gotten to the place of needing to move boxes out of the house so that we can pack up the rest.
Isn’t that a little like the way life works? To be able to move on in certain areas of life, we have to clean out, organize, and often times even get rid of other stuff. We are currently in a series at North Way called “unplug – the gift of rest and margin” and it’s interesting how that theme has been coming to mind lately. Although it’s and easy concept to understand, it’s a difficult concept for me to live by. I’d often times rather hold on to everything than let go of what I don’t need anymore, even though I’ve experienced the freedom of rest after letting go in the past. I don’t think I’m in one of those moments right now, but I know I will find myself feeling trapped and overextended if I’m not careful.
Cleaning out the garage, although difficult, was a freeing experience. That freedom can be experienced by letting go of the unnecessary stuff of life too, especially if you are looking to take on a new chapter in your life.