Where Your Treasure Is…

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clutter, freedom, freeing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasure

As many people have, I’ve been taking the opportunity lately that working from home affords me to do the things I never have time for. My latest and greatest effort has been getting rid of much of what I no longer need. I am amazed at how difficult a task it has become because of all the things that I call “mine.” They are not, in the grand scheme of things, what people might see as “treasures” but they are meaningful. to me for various reasons—mostly sentimental. It has been a difficult but freeing thing to divest myself of what I no longer need, and what ultimately helps me to remember that, as the Scriptures say, where your treasure is, there also is your heart. And there is much more space for the inner things that I value. Less clutter = more freedom in every way.

Try it! I highly recommend letting go!

Packing Up

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breathing, clutter, deeper purposes, journey, live in the present moment, Mark, new day, possibility, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, travel, walking stick

Some days I feel (and probably look like) a pack mule as I leave for work. Nearly always my computer bag is slung over my left shoulder hugging the purse already hanging there. In my right hand could be my briefcase and perhaps a plastic grocery bag or two hanging from my wrist with lunch, letters to mail, items to return to the religious education office…or whatever. Oh yes, and somewhere my keys adorn a finger. One must be dexterous these days when leaving home – and occasionally I actually make it to the car without the whole of my building project collapsing around me!

I laughed this morning as I read the line from Mark’s gospel where he instructs his emissaries who are about to go out on mission. (MK 6:7-13) “Take nothing for the journey but a walking stick,” he says, “no food, no sack, no money in your belts.” They were to wear sandals but could manage without a second tunic. What makes me think I won’t survive an afternoon without my lunch? And I won’t even go into what it takes to pack for an actual trip! Most important there is the color scheme I’m working with to minimize the number of shoe choices…

Obviously conditions are different now but this comparison does make me think about how cluttered life can become with material cares that sometimes distract from the deeper purposes of work and walking the path. It’s all about consciousness really. It’s as easy for me to fail to notice a colleague’s unspoken need as it is to forget to hang my lunch over my wrist unless I am living in the present moment where God always waits. So – breathing in and breathing out, I begin again, smiling at the word and the reminder that helps me to wake up to possibility in this new day.

Bigger Barns

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baby boomers, clutter, fool, God, greed, harvest, Luke, possessions, rich man, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, treasures

One of the words heard very commonly today, especially from “baby-boomers” in my circles, is downsizing. When our houses become cluttered with things that are no longer needed or useful, especially clothing, exercise equipment, gadgets or the like, we begin to wonder about the advisability of getting rid of some of them. Sometimes the divestment can be quite painful if what we have has been precious to us in the past. How can I possibly give away my wedding dress or the bicycle that might someday become part of my exercise program…? Even though we may not count ourselves in the company of the greedy, it is easy to see how we can slide into the “too much is never enough” category. (I did actually buy a small bookcase this year – to add to the other three in my bedroom…just for my studies, of course.)

The gospel this morning (LK 12: 13-21) is rather stark in its commentary on greed and the acquisition of too many goods. Luke recounts a parable about a rich man who, when faced with a bountiful harvest, plans to tear down his barns and build bigger ones where he can store not only his grain but his other goods as well. His vision sees him, when the building and storage is complete, saying to himself, “Eat, drink and be merry!” But God calls him a fool, tells him he’s going to die that night and asks what will happen then to all that he has stored up. The moral of the story is a good one for us to consider. Jesus says: “Thus it will be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.”

So I guess I’d better get about considering what matters to God and at the same time start thinning out my library…and clothes closet…and cache of mementos…

Don’t Go Away

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calling to God, clean room, clutter, don't give up, give to the poor, Jesus, poor, possession, rich

I did spend my day on Saturday organizing and readying some things to give away.(See Saturday’s post for explanation) It was a good start but one would think I had a huge bedroom as I say that I could probably work all week to get it to pristine condition. Since I don’t have the entire week, I’ll just see what happens this morning…

The gospel today is the one about the “rich young man” who wants to know what he has to do to gain eternal life (MT 19:16-22). Jesus spouts the commandments  to him but he says he’s good with all that. He’s looking for more – not just keeping the law and being good but a deeper way of living. It sounds like he’s hungry for that. Unfortunately, when Jesus tells him to sell what he has and give to the poor and then to come and follow him, the young man just can’t do it. The last line says that he went away sad for he had many possessions.

There’s a lot of speculation about what Jesus meant by his advice to the young man. In that time and culture it would perhaps have worked to give away everything and walk with Jesus (although Jesus was still new on the scene and it would’ve been a risk). Today, a person doing that would most likely end up in shelters and/or on welfare and would be despised by a great portion of the society so the point would be lost. I do think Jesus was serious about giving to the poor; he spoke of “the poor” more than almost anything. We are definitely called to be mindful of those who fit that description – for example, the shamefully large number of children who go to bed hungry in this, the richest country in the world. But I think Jesus might have been speaking about matters of the heart here as well. In addition to the things that clutter my room, what else holds my heart so tightly that I can’t let go? Money? Status? People in my life? Work? How can I free myself so that nothing keeps me from my calling to God?

I think the saddest thing about this story is that the young man thought he had to do what he was asked perfectly all at once. He was young. When I was young I had no idea what was necessary to let go of since I was still gathering experiences and people and the life I have come to live. I hope Jesus didn’t really say the young man had to sell everything and THEN come to follow him. I think that would’ve been unfair and I never see Jesus as unfair – challenging, maybe, but not unfair. So I wonder if, after the end of the story we have, Jesus stopped him from going away – or met him again later – and had a conversation about why letting go of everything that clings to us is necessary in the spiritual life. I hope so. My advice to him and anyone else who is struggling with surrender is: DON’T GO AWAY SAD! It will get easier to surrender as you practice. Don’t go away; just work on it and take it a day at a time, a step at a time along the path. You’ll catch up to Jesus eventually as long as you don’t give up.

I’m off then to work in my room and my heart…

A Clean Heart

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clearning, clutter, conscious work, housecleaning, psalm 51, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

My first thought when I woke up this morning was about cleaning my bedroom – not a shock for anyone who frequently hears me lament about the sad state of it, but today is, I think, the day to dig in and get it organized. It is Saturday after all.

I smiled when I read the beginning of the psalm text for today (51: 12-19) that said, “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.” I guess the clearing out is going to go deeper than I thought upon waking. Certainly, total cleanliness and order of the inside and out of me will not happen in the next 12 – 15 hours but I do think there is merit to reflecting on how the two go hand in hand. Clutter is clutter, whether in the mind and heart or the physical space in which I live. I am reminded of the “Wisdom Schools” I have attended where one of the daily practices was conscious work – paying attention to an inner task (breathing, “Where are your feet?” or some such focus) while also doing an outer task (painting a table, raking leaves, hammering a nail…). So today as I rifle through piles of paper to shred and decide which books really would be of more help in a library or when I dust, I will try to penetrate those interior nooks and crannies of my soul for stuff that has been hiding in the shadows and needs to come into the light in order to be let go. Then maybe tomorrow I will feel lighter and steadfast in my resolve to “clean up my act” on a daily basis so God can easily walk around my bedroom and in the spacious chambers of my heart.