Spring Cleaning

Every year around this time I do a Spring cleaning of my home study, closets, dresser, and chest of drawers. Clothes I have not worn much are separated from the ones I wear a lot and put in a box for House of Hope. Books that I know I will never open again are removed from the shelves and sent on their way to their next home. Trinkets, toys, ephemera are all looked at and decided whether I need to keep them or not. And things that are broken, damaged beyond repair, or just too dirty to use any more are either tossed or sent on to HOH. At the end, I have a room that is clean, freed of clutter, and feels comfortable.

I repeat this in the Fall.

It’s amazing how much stuff builds up, and how cluttered my life can become if I do not do this cleaning regularly.

A couple of things I have discovered- 1. I am able to find what I am looking for much more quickly after the cleaning; and 2. I have room for something new.

My heart is the same way. It gets cluttered, filled with things not needed, or even harmful. Broken dreams, hurt feelings, secret (and not-so-secret) sin, clinging to things that were good once but no longer are. It gets filled regularly with stuff so there’s no room for something new, something creative, something helpful. And there’s no room for Jesus. Or if Jesus is in there, he’s getting pretty cramped. There’s no room for more of him.

The psalmist said in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” I have to give God permission to clean my heart. To remove all that is not needed anymore, all that is harmful, all that clutters up my life. And, I have to cooperate with God in it. I’ve seen a couple of those shows about hoarders, and even worked with some at Salkehatchie camps. They cling to everything as if their life depended on it. Until we let it go, and throw it away, we really don’t have room for real life, which is Jesus.

This is not a “once and done” thing. Just as we have to regularly clean our homes, we need to regularly ask God to clean our hearts. Is it time for a Spring cleaning over your way?

My Billy Graham Story

Billy Graham died today. Lots of people have a “Billy Graham story”. Here’s mine.

Thanksgiving of 1971 I was dating a young woman who attended Montreat-Anderson College, in Montreat, NC. She had a job caring for a couple of horses at Billy Graham’s home near there. She was invited to Thanksgiving supper with the Graham’s, and she invited me to go along. Which I did. Nervously. After all, this was Billy Graham I would be sitting with at the table.

We stood at the front door, waiting for someone to answer. I tried to make jokes to ease my nervousness. “Do I need to take off my shoes, this being holy ground?” “Is that a burning bush I see over at the edge of the yard?” Not very funny, but I was trying.

The door opened and there he was. He welcomed us into his home, stuck out his hand, and said, “Hello. I’m Billy Graham.” I took his hand and told him my name. We went into the dining room, had supper and good conversation. Every time the conversation would turn towards him, Billy would direct it in another way. He wasn’t being overly private or hiding anything; he just didn’t think he was that interesting.

Late in the conversation, I ventured these thoughts to him. “Mr. Graham, you may be the best-known person on the planet right now. Your voice is known all over the world. Even if people did not know what you looked like, they would recognize your voice because it is heard on radio stations everywhere. You are probably the only person who would not need to introduce himself. Yet, you told me your name at the door. You didn’t need to. Why?” (I was thinking that he probably thought I was too stupid to remember where I was having supper.) He said, “I have always thought it was presumptuous to think that anyone would know who I was.”

That has stuck with me for the last 47 years.

Thanks, Dr. Graham, for your life and witness. I will wager everything that this morning when you woke up in heaven, someone called you by name.