(So how many of you are singing that line from En Vogue’s song now? You’re welcome.)
I love my house. It’s not our “forever home,” but I love it. I love the layout and the location in our neighborhood. We live in a townhouse development, but ours is a large corner lot backed up to woods. Our master bedroom is facing the back, and I love waking up in the morning, opening up my curtains and taking in the beauty of God’s nature—His literal and figurative nature. Then, I open the door to my bedroom, walk around my house and I’m overtaken by the nature of…my children. Yeesh. Folks. The inside of my house needs some work.
It’s not irreparably awful…it just needs serious maintenance. I despise housework. I don’t terribly mind the basic upkeep…vacuuming, dusting, laundry, dishes, etc. No, what I despise is the nitty-gritty—on my hands and knees or stepladder, as the case may be, painting and deep cleaning.
Our house was formerly a foreclosure when we moved in, and the contractors who worked on it slapped on the cheapest paint imaginable. Consequently, the bathroom walls begin to show mildew. The walls surrounding the sink hold fast the toothpaste splatters from when my 7 year old son brushes his teeth and apparently foregoes the sink to dispose of the contents of his mouth and opts for the wall and mirror with a hearty spit. (Why? Whyyyy, Boy?!) The lighting is horrible in there, so the bathroom appears dim. And when I walk in, I’m instantly depressed and overwhelmed.
The same went for our basement. It became cluttered with 5 years of junk. Old coats, shoes, toys, cords that power what, I don’t know…JUNK! Our basement is the entire length and width of our house, and just about every square foot of it was covered in chaos. I literally became angry every time I went down there. I’d run down, hunt through the piles of madness for whatever I was looking for, grunting and complaining, find it, shut off the light and run back upstairs as quickly as I could.
I needed to stop avoiding and begin the dreaded work of renewing. And I was as eager to take on that task of renewing both the bathroom and the basement as I was to take on the even more difficult task of renewing my mind.
As I mentioned in a previous excerpt, the Holy Spirit impressed on my heart that I needed to make some heart and mind changes. I was becoming depressed and overwhelmed by the clutter and noise of the world. I had to take a break and remove the things that clouded my mind. That wasn’t too difficult, to be honest. Social media was the main culprit. Get off of Facebook–done! But I quickly learned that my mind needs an overhaul. Much like my children’s bathroom and our basement, there are areas of my mind that need some renewing. Corners of my mind are beginning to grow mildew. The walls of my mind are splattered with droplets of anger, resentment, and impatience. When I take time to stop and think, the room of mind is dim, poorly lit. The space of my mind is cluttered, and I feel agitated when I spend any time in it.
Romans 12:2 is a verse that I’ve committed to memory. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.”
So, how do I do that? How does my mind become renewed? The dictionary defines “renew” as “resuming (an activity) after an interruption; to re-establish.” Our bathroom and basement didn’t start out in the state they are in now. When we moved in, the bathroom was fresh and clean. No mildew, no toothpaste splatters. It seemed brighter and more inviting. Our basement was open and free of clutter. That state of things was interrupted by occupancy. But those spaces also received no maintenance. Things were just…left. The walls of the bathroom weren’t unseen, obviously. To the contrary, they were very much seen. Taunting, even. They just weren’t maintained. The basement became a catch-all for any and everything. Over time, the dirt and mess just built up.
So it is with our minds. We don’t take leave of our minds. We exist in our minds every day. We go about the business of life and the dirt of chaos, busyness, suppressed anger, and resentment build up over time. It’s not that we don’t see it, we just accept it as what it is. And much like I do with my kids’ bathroom and our basement, we become overwhelmed, shake our heads with frustration, turn off the light, and hightail it outta there.
There needs to be a re-establishment of cleanliness—an upkeep of maintenance. We do this by clearing out the dirt. II Corinthians 10:5 says, “…and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Take them captive. Round them up!
I have to grab a trash bag and pick up the angry thoughts. That seems simple, right? Yeahhhh, no. As per usual, when I began cleaning up my basement, I picked up an item, held it and thought…”I might need this. This could be useful!” Mind you, it hadn’t been useful for FIVE YEARS, but now…NOW, I might find a use for it. It might be important later! Isn’t that what we do with the clutter in our minds? When we start the task of clearing out the anger in our minds, we recall why we got angry. We recollect what that person did to us and we wonder if we should really let it go. “Did they learn their lesson? What if they do it again? If I get rid of this “righteous anger,” will I leave myself open for future hurt?”
Friend, take no thought for things of the past. Sure, that incident might prove to be useful…if you like clutter. If you like being angry and resentful. Hmm. I’m going to go ahead and say it—some of us do. Some of us like the feeling of anger and resentment. It’s become cozy. It’s given us some sick and twisted comfort, and we settle into our righteous indignation. Let that mess go!! The clutter of anger and resentment will pile up so high, it will reach your neck and choke you. You’ll begin to find it difficult to breathe. You will eventually gasp for fresh air—the freshness of God’s peace, calm, and love.
You’ve got to do what I did with that basement—don’t think, just clean. I picked up things that were actually useful, put them aside for organization, and threw the rest in the trash bag—immediately and without a second thought. Don’t think about it. Grab it and throw it away.
Philippians 4:8–“Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
I’m starting on the bathroom this week. A fresh coat of paint and new lighting fixtures. My mind will require the same. I need to freshen and brighten my mind with thoughts of truth, honor, justice, purity, loveliness.
And once all of that is done, I need to maintain. Just because I’ve slapped on a fresh coat of paint doesn’t mean my son will miraculously decide to spit the contents of his mouth completely into the sink. There will still be toothpaste splatters that find their way onto the walls of that bathroom. My mind is no different. l will still grow angry. There will always be things over which I can become resentful. Life doesn’t stop being life. On a daily basis, I’ll need to take a rag and wipe away those debilitating thoughts. I’ll need to daily renew my mind by staying in the Word, meditating on the things that will keep the walls of my mind clean. Psalms 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And as I need to do with changing out the light fixtures in the bathroom, I need to keep my mind well-lit with the Word of God.
Now that my basement is clean, when I go down there, I just smile. I can sit and walk around freely, not tripping over clutter and chaos. I can find what I need to find without the use of expletives! It’s freeing. And when I’ve taken the time to clear out my mind, I feel the same. I feel free, happy, lighter.
Renew your mind this week. Daily. Momentarily. Satan takes no time off from seeking to kill an destroy. We need to be on guard—trash bag, paint brush, and the Word of God in hand.
Timely. Very timely!