Thought for the Day 19th March 2021 - Spring cleaning (your head)

AUDIO 

Some people would call me untidy.

I can't see it myself ... but I usually can't see more than about 25% of the surface of my desk either, so I do TRY to pay attention to what I'm told.

And Spring is bursting over us ... as the early morning bird-song gets ever louder here, and the grass is turning greener beneath our feet ... and that's the traditional time for cleaning and clearing junk.

De-cluttering in the teeth of Pandemic

Clutter management seems to have been a particular problem since we entered this pandemic. It used to be that you could simply throw things out. Men came and collected it from outside your house ... whatever it was, it really didn't matter.

But now? Oh, now you have to sift and sort your rubbish. There's some stuff they'll only take a little bit of, and there's some stuff they simply will not take at all.

And have you tried taking stuff to the tip recently? You need an appointment, the right sort of vehicle, possibly a licence and definitely two forms of i.d. to get in there and once you're in there you need a degree in waste management to know which bin to put 'what' into!

It all makes getting rid of rubbish very difficult and fly-tipping in the countryside is a rapidly rising problem.

De-cluttering your home's become a really tricky problem ... but de-cluttering your mind is even more important.

Letting junk build up THERE causes chaos of life.

And that's the point of the Verse for the Day we've got today ...

"Get rid of all 

bitterness, 

rage and 

anger, 

brawling and 

slander, 

along with every form of malice. 

Be kind and compassionate to one another, 

forgiving each other, 

just as in Christ God forgave you."

                                     Ephesians 4:31-32

Paul identifies the mental clutter we need to shift ... and that hasn't got any easier in a pandemic either. It's something I always find difficult in my workspace!

These are the things that inhibit you and trip up your life:

• Bitterness
  
  Bitterness is nursing hurts and offences that you believe  someone else has committed against you.
  
  It hurts only the person who nurtures it.
  
  
• Rage
  
  This word for rage here is  θυμός (thumos) it means passion, angry, heat, anger boiling up and soon subsiding again.
  
  Rage causes us to do things that can't be done and that we might live to regret.
  
  
  
• Anger
  
  This word for anger ὀργή  (orgē) means anger, the natural disposition or temper. The sort of general anger that can rise up at anything, but poisons any relationship it bursts out in.
  
  
  
• Brawling
  
  Brawling's what happens when rage and anger aren't controlled ... internal anger spilling out into violence ... violent words and violent actions that can get carried out.
  
  
  
• Slander
  
  Slander is speech that injures someone's good name ... the trouble is it injures far more than their name.
  
  (Here's a BIG one in the social media age ... have you heard what this did to TV presenter, the late Caroline Flack ? Click the link!)
  
  
  
• Every form of malice
  
  And then says Paul, sweeping everything else up ... 'every form of malice'.
• 
  This word for malice is ill-will and the desire to injure someone ... for whatever reason such desire should arise.

Evidently life wasn't so different in Turkey in 60 AD!

Here's the Point

These things DEFINITELY cheapen human existence, but not ONE of us came out of that list there unscathed.

'Chuck it out' then, says Paul the Apostle.

But it isn't that easy. 

Like de-cluttering there are two practical problems: motivation and knowing where to start.

So next come Paul's practical solutions:

Here's the Takeaway

"Be 

kind and 

compassionate to one another, 

forgiving each other, 

just as in Christ God forgave you."

1. Here is the starting point for you

Take the initiative.

Push out the bad stuff by bringing in the GOOD stuff ... DO THESE!

"Be 

• kind
  
  
  
• compassionate
  
  
  
• forgiving one another"
  
  

Break into the cycle of vengeful-ness and overcome the mess by displacing it with what you need to fill your mind and your workspace with so you can be healthy and wholesome and fruitful.

Just like my desk ... that's an on-going project, so it's going to take fixing your eyes on strong inspiration.

Paul's got that need covered too.

2. Here is the inspiration to get the job done

This is the big one for me right here!

I start clearing my workspace with a rubbish bag, but by tomorrow it seems to need doing again and then motivation flags without on-going inspiration.

Here's the inspiration for de-cluttering bad mental habits and for safeguarding the efficiency of your psychology, says the Apostle.

Do this: displace the junk with the good stuff, with this motivation, counsels Paul.

Do this "just as in Christ God forgave you."

Just like my desk, I need to actively ponder my inspiration to get this junk Paul's listed here out of my life.

I deserved not letting off for all my bad choices, the sort other people make around me all the time

 and that I get worked up about.

But Christ died so I get forgiven. 

Contemplating that should affect my own thought processes, and if it does that must also affect the inward violence of my responses to people too.

It's a battle, but our inspiration is Jesus, and feeding our mind on thoughts of His loving sacrifice for ME is what fuels our inward renewal.

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