Look What I Found!!!

Our family brought in the New Year with a busted hot water heater and 40 gallons (or so) of water in our carpet.  We've lived in this house for 17 years and have never had a claim on our homeowners insurance.  We've also never had new carpet.  Every year we would tuck back a little money to get new floors but a car would break down or a kid would need money for a school trip...you get the picture.  Anyway, it was beyond repair and the adjuster came out and wrote us a check for new carpet through the whole house.  Yay!!!!!!!  There was the silver lining!  

Only, guess what.  I went into our bedrooms and began to assess the situation and did you know there is carpet under the bed?  And the dressers...and the pile in the corner...AND the closets????  Yep, just move those shoes and bags and right there it is...CARPET!!!  We had to move everything out of every bedroom to bring in the new carpet. And suddenly I realized that somewhere along the way, we collected A LOT of stuff.  I really hate piles...I like tidy and orderly and everything in it's place.  But, life happened and we lived in survival mode and things piled up.  So, I began to pack boxes and purge junk and I found stuff I forgot I had.  And I began to dream...about a beautiful bedroom and a fresh start.  I would paint and get new bedding with lots of pillows and it would be a place to relax after a long day!  

Of all the things I found that day in that room, HOPE was the most valuable.  

And so I began to realize that my heart and mind had become just like my bedroom.  Life happened and I went into survival mode and stuff started piling up.  

 It's a new year...an opportunity for new things, but I couldn't dream.  I couldn't get excited.  And as I went in to assess the situation, I realized that somewhere, under piles of disobedient thoughts, and unsurrendered fears and even unforgiveness...was my hope.  There was no room for new things.  I was going to have to pack up and purge old things.

Now ya'll...I know better!!  I've taught workshops on bringing every thought into obedience.  But the trials were bigger in this season and the mountains were taller and the waves were relentless, and for a brief time, I took my focus from the Source of my hope.  

It was so subtle.  I didn't even realize what was happening.  I was just getting through my days and the piles were forming.  

So now...I rejoice as I purge the junk.  I begin to dream about what beautiful thing God is going to do because as I'm casting out imaginations and packing up disobedient thought...I'm finding my hope and I'm getting excited about new things!

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

II Cor 10:5

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? HOPE  in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 43:5