Battle Report

Published by christi on August 24, 2023August 24, 2023

1. The bugs are dead.
2. My shelves are empty.
3. Many things are washed, dried and put away.
4. A small pickup load has been taken to a local charity.
5. The process of letting go of things I don’t need, want, or love is going to be a long one.
6. Most of my house is in boxes or bags, closed up, stacked up, loosely labeled, if at all.
7. My heart is weary, because battle is waged on many fronts.

The thing is that stuff is not the real challenge. Stuff can be a shield against really seeing what is going on. Stuff can provide a cushion between me and the pokey parts of reality. When I have to sort through my things, seeking to ask the Lord what He thinks about the thing I am holding in my hand, I have to face the truth about where my security lies, about the choices I’ve made in the past, about what my values are, about where I get my value.

One of the scripture words that came up this week began like this:

“The LORD your God is testing you…”

When I read those words, I couldn’t decide to laugh or cry. Yup! This is a test. (When is it going to be over?) And not really a pass/fail test. More like an assayer’s test to find out how much real precious metal is in the lump of ore being examined. Ore is tested by crushing and by fire, and then weighed to determine how much is treasure and how much is junk.

God is looking for (a silly way to say it, because He already knows) whole-hearted devotion to Him through all the crushing and the heat. The rest of the verse reads:

“…to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “

I guess this is where the rubber meets the road. Will I stick closely enough to Jesus that our relationship survives the long, wearying process of passing judgment on every thing in our house? It’s getting crunchy and hot around here as I am

Following Jesus every day in the everyday.

Christi