Go clean your room! Yep, those were 4 words that I hated to hear as a kiddo. I was not a very neat person for a very long time. There were days upon days that the carpet wasn’t even visible under the chaos. My parents would shake their heads in disbelief that I could find anything, but I always seemed to know which pile hid what. Where are my soccer cleats? Under the pile by the closet. My jersey? Under the foot of the bed on the right side. My parents were baffled, but even though I could prove where things were in the mess, they still made me clean my room.
I wasn’t a very focused cleaner, either. I would be tasked with cleaning my room, but I would get caught up in reading every piece of paper I uncovered. Anyone else? I would find a book under a pillow and would start reading… and reading some more. I would find a picture and would decide that was the perfect time to redecorate my walls and mirror with a collage-style flare. Really, I subconsciously found any and every excuse to not clean my room. The reality was that the mess didn’t bother me as much as it bothered my parents.
Fast-forward to today, and I’m a bit different: I hate it when my house is a mess. I’m not a minimalist – I like the decorative knick-knacks – but I want everything in its place. If it’s a book, it needs to be on a bookshelf. If it’s an abandoned toy, it needs to be put away. Coats get hung up, shoes go in the closet, and mail gets dealt with. I’m not neat as a pin, but for heaven’s sake, put the pillows back on the couch where they go! I won’t even get started on the forgotten glasses of water left behind without a coaster, and why in the world would you not take care of your dish! Are those crumbs on the counter?
These founded-in-adulthood tendencies really drive my kiddos crazy. If their rooms aren’t clean to my standards, I will clean them. This means that I’ll come in, without mercy and without input, and will throw things away. This really bothers them because they seem to love everything that crosses their path – even little scraps of paper that someone doodled a stick figure on. Toys from kids’ meals are tossed, papers are thrown out, and Salvation Army better prepare for a huge donation. That’s my way to get my kiddos to clean their room.
My parents came up with a pretty brilliant plan to get me to clean my room instead of dragging it out. If my room was a complete disaster and I wasn’t getting the job done right away, they would ground me till it was clean… plus a day. So, if I got my room completely clean on Friday, I was still grounded on Saturday as a consequence of my procrastination (or rather my obstinacy). Tricky, tricky, tricky. I’m not patient enough to enact that rule with my kiddos – I just have a hunger to purge their rooms (cue evil laugh).
As I’ve been digging in the Word over the past few weeks, I’ve been focusing more and more on God’s goodness. Big surprise there, right? It’s a huge topic to cover, because His goodness is on every page, but not always portrayed the same way. Jesus willingly dying on the cross is an oh duh portrayal of His goodness. The fact that Jesus healed all who came to Him for healing is an oh duh portrayal of His goodness. God’s heart to extend the invitation of salvation to everyone is an oh duh portrayal of His goodness. But God’s goodness is also portrayed in what He doesn’t do.
There are a great many times that I wish my kiddos would do things exactly the way I want them to and exactly when I want them to do it. How awesome would it be to never have to tell the kiddos to tidy things up – because everything was already tidy! But then a line from VeggieTales comes back to me: a gift that’s demanded is no gift at all (from A Snoodle’s Tale). Obedience is also a gift.
A huge part of God’s goodness is in what He doesn’t do. He doesn’t force us to accept Him. He doesn’t force us to do what is right or best. He doesn’t force us to spend time with Him. And He doesn’t force us to clean our rooms. He doesn’t force us because He wants us to choose Him.
Much like the rooms that my kiddos occupy, the room that the Holy Spirit occupies can get pretty cluttered, can’t it? My kiddos start out with a clean room – bed made, no dust-bunnies under it, toys put away, clothes hung up or put neatly away in the dresser, books on the shelf – you get the picture. All is neat and tidy. But then they start to accumulate stuff that doesn’t belong. That’s kind of like our innermost being – the place the Holy Spirit occupies.
Oh, how I’ve accumulated stuff that doesn’t belong! And I have control over it – movies and shows that I watch, music I listen to, and books I read. It can even be the influences of the people I have in my circle. Perhaps you’ve noticed that some stories in the Bible tell of people getting healed based on someone else’s faith? The Centurian had great faith and Jesus healed the servant (Matthew 8:5-13). The man lowered through the roof was healed when Jesus saw his friends’ faith (Mark 2:3-12).
Your circle matters and what you ingest through entertainment matters. It’s said that you will be consumed by what you consume. That’s a bit scary, but there’s truth there. We’re to be shrewd and innocent at the same time. In other words, we’re to use discernment to be righteously wise in all of our dealings. This includes deciding what to watch, listen to, read, and who to associate with. When it comes to being consumed, am I choosing to be consumed by the world or by God?
All of these consuming things can either clutter or clean the space that the Holy Spirit occupies.
In my humanness, if I were dwelling in a room that was getting cluttered, I would be making some pretty loud objections, but the Holy Spirit – God – is a gentleman. He’s not going to force you to clean your room. He’s not going to take over the operation and start throwing things away. He’s such a gentleman that He will patiently wait until you make the decision to start cleaning things out. He’s always talking to us, but can we hear Him through the stuff?
This is a huge part of the goodness of God! He’s not going to force us to do anything! He wants our obedience, but He’s not going to force us to obey.
I want my kiddos to do the right thing – keeping their rooms clean is a big one – but I want them to do the right thing without my telling them to. I want them to know I love them and respond by loving me back.
The Bible tells us that God so loved the world (John 3:16), not that we so loved God. While we were enemies of God, He chose to make the ultimate sacrifice (Romans 5:8). He knew we couldn’t save ourselves, so He did it for us (Ephesians 2:8-9). And He gives us the freedom to choose Him (Deuteronomy 30:15-19) even though He chose, before creation, to redeem us (Ephesians 1:4).
I don’t want to grudgingly clean, tidy, and declutter… I want my actions to be a response of love. I want my obedience to be a gift for the One who occupies my heart.