I need to clean! As Coordinator of Women's Ministries in our church, I have sometimes encouraged the ladies to choose a single word, possibly a short phrase that they can use as their own personal theme for the year, a word to rely on or to help get back on track to where they want the year to head. It can be as simple as JOY or somewhat more complicated--RENEW!
This week I was reading some thoughts from Ty Gibson, and they struck home with me!
ENTERING 2024 CLEAN--My key word for entering the new year is, CLEAN.
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults. Psalm 19:12
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
The first thing I need to know about myself is that I don't know myself. You don't know yourself either. Each of us humans, in the complex realm of our own minds, are masters of evasion and self-justification. There are sins you are committing that you do not know you are committing. The same is true of me. And yet, I am “clean” of guilt. I am innocent before God by virtue of the righteousness of Christ that covers me. Yes, I am clean of the sins I know and confess, but I am also clean of all the sinful things I don’t know about myself. Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer, encapsulated this truth with the Latin term, “simul justus et peccator”—simultaneously righteous and sinful. In myself, I am sinful. In Christ, I am righteous.” Ty Gibson
There is so much in what he wrote. I really like the word that he chose for the year—CLEAN. After thinking about it for a bit, I believe that is a good word for me for this year. I have many things that need to be CLEAN. Right now, there is a floor that needs CLEANing. I spilled something and also my kitchen has been somewhat of a construction zone. My husband has been working on a bathroom tile project and CLEANing some used tiles and preparing them to be reused. We have been "cooking tiles" to help with removing old glue. And then each tile must be scraped to remove old grout. He has worked at it for several days and it all has created quite a mess on the floor and on our table. That part of the project is nearing an end and both of us are glad. We still have a living room to re-CLEAN since all of our bathroom "stuff" is still in the living room waiting to be put back in place. Yup, my living room needs to be CLEANed up again. It is kind of annoying to be in the bathroom and remember something you need is still back in the living room! I speak from experience!
Some use the word declutter. For me, it is just CLEAN. I am trying to find things that I am getting rid of to help with making things CLEANer. Things that I should have made decisions on long ago! I too, am a master of evasion and self-justification. I have felt justified in keeping some things and now realize that I no longer can justify them. It is so hard to CLEAN out what has been treasured and kept as useful. It is hard to learn that no one thinks my things are treasures. I didn't consider them sin treasures, but I want to be CLEAN in every way. I want God to create in me a CLEAN heart for this coming year. Every day is a gift from God Himself to each of us. Every day is precious. Every day can be lived to the fullest with God's help.
I read recently of the Death Clock. It's a web site on the Internet that contains a friendly reminder that life is slipping away. To participate, you pump in information about your age, sex, and Body Mass Index (the site has a BMI calculator to help you figure this out.) It uses a simple life expectancy value to determine when you will die and how many seconds you have left to live. The Death Clock will spit out approximately how much time you have left before you personally expire. It displays the time in seconds which tick quickly by as you watch. Of course, it doesn't represent the real date of your death. Only God knows that information. Watching the diminishing time winding down is probably a bit disconcerting if you are concerned with your health.
This past year was a "wake-up" call for me. I became profoundly surprised and concerned with how rapidly my health can change. Not being able to walk seemed to happen overnight. And changed my life so greatly. I must stop and think before every action—especially ones that I don't do often. Do I want to go shopping? Probably not worth it. Do I want to go out for a meal at Pizza Ranch? Yes, but it isn't practical for me. It's too hard to even get up out of a chair. Do I want to do this or that......? Yes, but how to do it? It has definitely occurred to me that I may not even have a tomorrow in my future. Although it may sound morbid, there are certainly no guarantees when it comes to the amount of time I or you have here on planet earth. The cartoon character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes once said, "God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind I'll never die." That's me! I am pretty far behind in my CLEAN journey.
Have you ever felt that life gets too busy? I have felt like that! I don't think that I am alone feeling like that. I have way too many things that need to be CLEAN. Going into a new year carries with it all kinds of activity. But God calls us to take time to stop, step back, and rest and then get on with the CLEANING! It's not just an invitation, it's the command of a loving God who knows what is good for us! Now that the new year has arrived, make the commitment to CLEAN and to rest. Schedule it into your week, every week.
Right now, I'm thankful for the life that I do have. I have a wonderful family--a wonderful husband and children and their families, brothers and sisters in law, nieces and nephews and cousins who love me. And I have a God who loves me and with God as my partner, I'm going to make each day the best day that I can. I'm asking God to help me spiritually live each day as if it were my last, and this is my prayer for 2024: "Lord, help me to have my spiritual bags packed, so that I am prepared to go at any moment." I want them packed with CLEAN things. I choose to only pack what has been CLEANed before I packed it. A CLEAN mind to understand what God is directing me to CLEAN. A CLEAN house/body/life to be able to fully live as God wants. A CLEAN robe that God wants to give me. CLEAN shoes to take me out of the mud and mess of this world into the beauty of a home that is being prepared for me. If I can meet each day with the confidence that God has the power and capability to CLEAN (save) me for eternity, I will have absolutely nothing to fear!
I invite you to CLEAN UP with me this year ahead of us.