The Clutter Bowl

The Bowl

I have a daily battle with clutter. It's really not my fault, I grew up in a clutter free home. My dad dislikes clutter even more than I do. You wouldn't know I have this battle if you came to my house. You would assume that I waved the white flag long ago. There are the shoes that never seem to make it to the right place, the laundry that just keeps multiplying, and the legos. Oh, the legos.

Sarah Bess has a book where you imitate people's voices or animal noises. For Mommy, she says "Go clean up!" every time. How about "I love you". I say that too, right?

One of my sanity tips to handle the 'stuff' is to have a clutter bowl...or basket, or box located in several places in the house. I pile things in and then when it is overflowing, I try to clean it out and get things where they belong.


Sometimes, my  mind feels like my clutter bowl. Thoughts that I just don't have time to deal with at the moment, get shoved in my head until later. I have found writing to be the best way to 'clear my bowl'. And usually those thoughts come out organized together in some way. The past week or so they just seem to stay jumbled. But my bowl is full, so forgive me but I am going to write about them all at once. There are more questions than answers here friends.

The Speaker

A few weeks ago, Jimmy and I went to see Jen Hatmaker. It was AWESOME. I think I overuse that word- but really, it was. Many of these thoughts feel connected in some way back to those two days.

The Church Sign

OK. This has been bugging me for awhile. What is the purpose of the church sign that preaches to us from those little black letters? I pass one everyday on the way to and from work. And I just don't get it. Who is their audience? What is their goal? Today's message, "A clear concience makes for a soft pillow." Ok- thank you church sign person for that. I can not recall a single time where one of these signs conveyed a message of love. A message of, you are a child of God and He loves you. SB is the queen of signs- the spelling might be off, but I'm thinking these folks should hire her. Let's not condemn her because she once wrote on her own private blog, "My daddy is a cock." She meant 'cook' people. She meant 'cook'. And there's the fact that she actually gets that God is all about love.

Perhaps my all time favorite church sign one Thanksgiving:



Say What?!



The Deal

We are so obsessed with cheaper and faster. I don't know if this is a conversation men have often, but if you are a woman it always goes something like this. Woman 1: "I love that sweater." Woman 2: "Thank you, I got it on double clearance. Only 4 dollars."

We love 'the deal' and feel we have won something by getting it cheap. The stores are making a killing on this concept. How often do we say, "I went shopping and saved $40 on 5 dresses". No you didn't. You spent $70. And while we bought it cheap, what did someone else pay?

Please don't misunderstand me here as judging! Just this week I bought a $4 pair of flip flops for Davis at Target. I'm pretty sure the materials and the labor on that are not fair trade.

But I wonder, when should we be asking different questions. What were the working conditions of the person that made this? How much did they get paid? Were they a child? If I change my purchase habits, would it even make a difference?

The Neighbor
Jesus said, Love God. Love your neighbor. Seems like pretty simple stuff. Seems like really good stuff. If this is our message, why are people in America fleeing from churches by the masses even though we are making our churches 'attractional' aka 'cool' with awesome music and coffee shops?
Could it be that the message is clear, but yet we aren't? That we spend more time bickering over discussing who is our neigbor, than loving them. Personally I tend to be better at loving those far away than my actual next door neighbors. Maybe you are awesome at helping your elderly neignbor mow the grass, but  you struggle to think of the poor in Africa as your neighbor. Maybe you help your elderly neighbor mow the grass AND sponsor orphans in Africa, but you struggle to see that the troubled teen that is Muslim is also who Jesus meant as our neighbor. Regardless of your definition, what if we just loved the people that came into our lives on a daily basis. Just that.

And what if today we said, yes. Just that. I will love the people in my life. What does that even mean? What do we even do? Maybe it means we are open to listen for the need? Maybe we could just live our lives like the chorus to this Christa Wells song, "You've Got a Home",

Here's a key to my front door.

Got a pillow if you lost yours.

You got a seat at my table.

You got a home.

Here's somebody who believes you.

The truth reminds you

You always got a place to go to.

You got a home.