I was sitting at home in my office, working at my eight to five job and a sudden urge came over me. I stared at the mess that had been piling up from when I moved the office from a larger room to this room so that my 18 year old daughter could have more space while she is in college and still home. I had moved to her old, much smaller room. Since the move, I had perpetually been in school and just had not had the time to finish going through things and find everything a place. So stuff just kept piling on. It was getting cramped. I’ve been staring at this mess for months now, unable to come up with the time to deal with it. Sitting there though, while I’m ironically cleaning up my tasks at work, and getting up to date on emails, I realized that I have to make the time, otherwise I’ll continue to use time as an excuse.

Of course that sent my mind wandering because, this isn’t the first time that I’ve had that thought recently. I had that thought about working out. I have had that thought about my writing. I have had that thought about all the things I know I’ve been needing to do and I have put them off. Yes, time is an issue for me, I really don’t have enough hours in the day, but there is always something that just isn’t as important as the things that need my time more. But then, my mind started wandering again. It kept trying to think about why I have this sudden change and urge. I know why though, because this isn’t the only change like this that I’ve been going through.

This is my season!

As Christians, we all go through seasons. They are meant to help mold us, shape us, grow us and prepare us for our closer walk with God and his plans for us. My life has always been chaotic. I stay busy at all times because inactivity breeds darkness for me. However, chaos gets jumbled and things get forgotten about. My office had become a reflection of that. Like the sudden urge to purge this room, I’ve been purging my life. This season is about so much more than that though. This is the season where I am removing the things that do not serve where I am going in my life with God’s direction. I am changing things that draw me further away or distract me from who God intended me to be. This is a season of change, of realization, and of no longer making excuses to hold onto things that were only there through the mental gymnastics it took to justify them. This also means that I’m purging my life of the things that produce clutter and chaos in my life and the space around me. This mess, this clutter, these things that I hold onto for the “just in case times”. These things I hold onto because I used to like them but haven’t touched them in years. These once sentimental things that I now feel indifferent to.

It’s all clutter.

It’s all a distraction.

It’s all time consuming static that draws me further from my walk.

As far as this office though:

My crafts – I’m keeping what I have for book making and sewing – everything else will be gone except tools. I will buy what I need as I need them.

These papers – I’ll keep the things I will continue to reference but toss those just taking up space.

These collectibles – this is harder. I will have to dig deep to see which ones truly need a space and which just fill up a shelf that could be used to house more books to learn about God’s word and love.

I won’t go on, you get the picture.

What season are you in? What do you need to do about it? What is God trying to tell you?

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Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (ESV)

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, ad a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, ad a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

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Psalm 1:3 (ESV)

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

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Acts 1:7 (ESV)

He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority…”

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Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

And let us not grow early of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.