Today at work I decided to take a very scary journey…..down to our basement. The basement is where we keep things we don’t want to deal with: old files, receipts, random paperwork, fixtures, and anything we can’t find a place for. Before I arrived a little over 3 years ago, the basement had some old files. But as I began organizing the office, I started putting stuff down there that wasn’t necessary for the day-to-day operations. But since we are moving offices in a few weeks, I had to tackle this mess. So I grabbed two staff members and we ventured down to the basement.

The trip down to the basement is never pleasant for anyone: it’s dark, cold, quiet, and smelly. We spend a few hours going through stuff that needed to be organized, needed to be thrown away, and needed to be moved with us to our new offices. None of us liked this experience because we left tired, dirty, and overwhelmed. But what I do know is that when we move in a few weeks, it will all be worth it that we cleaned out the junk so early.

We all have our personal junk in our lives. We are not perfect people and with all of us, there is something emotional or spiritual that is potentially lurking underneath the surface. It is how we deal with the junk in our lives that determine our spiritual health.

Luke 12:3 says, “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”

If I want to be the man that Christ calls me to be, I have to be aware of the inner junk in my life. It’s not pretty, clean, or easy. But the end result is so better.