Unpacking

The other day I read a friend's blog post about unpacking the baggage we carry around with us. It's a theme that is common to me, one that has been presented in numerous sermons and lessons I've heard. I enjoyed reading what my friend had gleaned from the presentation she had witnessed, but at the moment it went no further than that.

Then there was this morning...

One week ago today we began unpacking all of our earthly belongings. We were surrounded by box after box after box in an utterly overwhelming atmosphere of chaos. My friend’s picture of unpacking was the concept of those suitcases we carry around, but my image is of all of those boxes!

Over the past week we’ve mostly been unpacking the things that pertained to daily life – kitchen and bathroom supplies, clothes, bedroom fixings, etc. But now we seem to be to those other boxes – the ones that we have to sort through just to see how we’re going to utilize them in our new surroundings. Those are the boxes that really set me to thinking this morning.

It’s all well and good to, both spiritually and literally, unpack what we’ve been lugging around. With those suitcases, we see burdens that we do carry with us from place to place. With the boxes, though, we see things that we’ve packed tightly away that we can even hide from sight if we so choose. (Think about all of those things tucked away in your attic or basement – do you even know what’s in there?!) We can actually put out of our minds that we have them, but they are still there. They are taking up space and weighing us down. If we ever try to move in our lives, we have to consider them. We have to either move them as they are, allowing them to take up valuable space without even considering what they contain, or we have to take the time to go through them and deal with the contents.

That is the thought that takes us to the heart of what was milling through my mind this morning. What do we do once it’s all unpacked? When we pull things out of a suitcase or a box, we have to find a new home for it! That’s one of the hardest parts about moving – deciding where something goes once you unpack it. Here in our new house, I can’t put things exactly where they’ve been for the past two years. Where I had a small kitchen and a roomy pantry I now have a large kitchen, a nice laundry room, and no pantry. Where I had small bathrooms with little storage space requiring many things to be stored elsewhere I now have a huge bathroom with more cabinet and drawer space than I know what to do with! I did have small bedrooms that really couldn’t handle the kids’ toys. But, we also had a large enclosed garage that could easily be our “playroom,” holding our huge bookshelves, all of the kids’ toys, our entertainment center, a tool area, etc. Now I have a smaller extra room which will be perfect for school and larger bedrooms where the kids can comfortably and happily play. I have to totally rethink my whole concept of setting up our home! Totally! It makes unpacking a bit of a challenge as I try to decide where each item should belong. Up until now it’s been mostly logical, but now that I’m getting to that “extra” stuff (office supplies, school stuff, knick-knacks, and other décor), it’s a little more difficult.

Our spiritual lives are much the same. We have both baggage and boxes that we need to unpack, but what do we do with what we unpack? Some of it we need to get rid of completely. Those bad habits, that bitterness, that memory of hurt that keeps us from truly moving forward. Some of it we need to open up and remember its usefulness. Those talents that we have pushed down, those gifts that we have failed to use, that forgiveness and love that we’ve been unwilling to freely share. And some of it needs to be stored away for later. Those passions for a mission we’re not quite able to embark on yet, those dreams that are still in formation, those areas of growth that need a few more years before everything truly falls into place.

Once we’re willing to open those boxes and begin the long, sometimes painful, process of unpacking, how do we know what to do with what we unpack? I have been reading lately in Joshua and seeing how God worked through the children of Israel to bring them into the land of their inheritance. They really didn’t have to do much – just obey. They had to seek the Lord for His instructions and then follow them to the letter. When they did, they had incredible victories. When they didn’t, they couldn’t even defeat the smallest of armies. In all of that – and in all of the laws and instructions God had given them – He just wanted them to realize that all they had to do was rely on Him! He wanted them to discover what their ancestors like Abraham and Joseph had learned and what their descendent David would learn. He wanted them to know that in their own power they could do nothing. They couldn’t even keep the simplest of laws! But, in His power, they could do everything.

God knows what to do with our stuff, no matter what it may be. He knows what we need to pull out and use. He knows what we need to give away. He knows what needs to be thrown out. He knows what needs to be packed away and dealt with later. It doesn’t necessarily make the task itself easier because the work still has to be done. It doesn’t make it all less time-consuming, and it doesn’t make it easier to deal with each thing we pull out. What reliance on Him does is take away the need to decide. We don’t have to worry about what to do with each thing we unpack. That’s His job. We just have to decide that we’re going to obey what He tells us to do with each thing. And as I try to decide where all of my physical belonging will be going, it gives me great comfort to know that He does this job on the spiritual side of things!