Clutter be gone & Keeping it real

It is finished. The filing cabinet has been conquered. The picture does not do it justice but let me assure you that the color coded file folders and uniform labels are a beauty to behold...okay, well, maybe just to us organization freaks.



I hope it will stay that way. In Julie Morgenstern's book on organization, "Organizing From the Inside Out", the author is dispelling certain myths about being organized (one myth being that once things are organized, they won't stay organized). She writes:
"When we are ready to get organized, it is usually because we have reached the breaking point; the clutter is driving us crazy and we want instant relief. Due to the accumulated stress of being disorganized, our knee-jerk reaction is to attack first, ask questions later-- to just dive in and do whatever we can to gain control quickly. We don't spend time analyzing the situation, and typically we do very little planning--basically putting the cart before the horse.
It's weird sometimes how daily life intersects with lessons God is trying to teach me. Our pastor has been teaching through Romans. As a baptist born and bred girl, I had no problem with the concept of salvation as God's gift of grace and not as a result of my good works. As a first-born, people pleasing, over acheiver, I've struggled through life on how to live out that redeemed life. I thought that once I received that gift, I had to live up to a long set of expectations to prove myself worthy. Our pastor put it this way: We wrongly think that doing fewer bad things + doing more good things= godliness. I had my own list of things (being raised a preacher's kid comes with it's own set of rules) that I thought would please God--all my own efforts. The result? Frustration, failure, feel bad, buck up, try harder next time. It's slowly sinking in...the power to live out that life is from the inside--Christ living in me.

So here's my memory verse for this week:
Romans 7 (The Message)
24I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?

25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

So keep it real...uncluttered.

If you would like to the more eloquent version of this message, go here and listen to Pastor Bob.