I love storage containers

Why is it I love to organize? I have much to organize. There are piles of Christmas decor waiting to be returned to boxes that have been accurately labeled and categorized in a computer file for reference next November.  There are baskets of laundry to be folded and a yes, small, but frustrating pile of white things that are waiting to be ironed.  There is mail! The dreaded and loved mail! With catalogues by the glossy stack, what? Even after Christmas they still come! There are ministry appeals and fund raising letters from all the worthy causes I love.  There are fabulous magazines with wonderful Organization ideas and tips for healthy living and fashion news and worldview updates that are vital for perspective shaping.  There are piles of maps, brochers,  postcards and vacation info that I am putting into my online photo album before my besotted memory allows these glory moments of vacation slip into oblivion. 

Rushing around putting these things in labeled and neat plastic boxes, online albums, the recycle bin or my own besotted mind somehow 'checks the box' and I feel, for a time, organized.  Whew! It feels good!  For about two minutes.  The promise of that fabulous goal of "Organized" is however much more than it, in reality turns out to be. I want the chaos of life to fit into a neat box!  I have found that if I manage to 'get it in there' for a moment, it just doesn't stay there!

Prov 16:1 says "The Plans of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the LORD comes the wise answer of the tongue.  All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits (the thoughts, and intents of the heart).                                             

Why do I love to organize?  Because it feels orderly, but it isn't necessarily about wisdom of the LORD.  I know, its good to clean out clutter and streamline my home so my time isn't wasted looking for stuff. But does it accomplish an ordering of the thoughts and intents of the heart?  Does it satisfy the thirstiness of my anxious heart, does it quench the thirsting of my chaotic soul? NO! It is good but it does not satisfy my real need for peace.

So, Dear LORD, let me sit with you, MY BELOVED. Let me quiet my soul, my thoughts. Then I can listen while you show me the intents of my heart. Ah! I see!  My quest for peace through 'organization' is futile!  Quiet down, piles!  I will get to you after I drink deeply of my lover's love for my heart. He pours in peace. Truth about what lasts.  Priorities for my day. After being strengthened in this way, I will go back, not loving MY organization.  But loving my soul's lover. 

Thanks, my Adoni, for drawing me to you with my thirst for peace.  You give it first, not through my business, but through relationship and time with you in my heart. Now I ask, would you show me your type of order? With the stuff that lasts? Help me let go of stuff that I no longer need.  Help me make room for all that you have for me.  Give me discernment between those two.  Ah!!!! No more rushing around to prove my worth, to gain peace.  I walk in that peace today.  Thanks so much my LORD.