Clutter/Christ

Today is a day of "fenging the shui" (a common phrase in this household which also horribly mangles the term for the sake of being clever). This is a regular battle, but lately I've been thinking about how stuff distracts us from the mission and purpose God has in our lives. A great reference is the quote from the Don Miller book from a couple of posts ago on distractions. There's also the great George Carlin riff on "stuff." The urge to "get light" finds its source straight in the gospels: leave your nets, follow me (Matthew 4:19-22); see also Jesus and the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, Luke 18:18-30).

He doesn't just ask us to get physically light but mentally light as well: "'when my father is dead, then I will follow you.', But Jesus told him 'Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead.'" This seems like a harsh passage, but following last night's seminar with Wayne Dyer, I think I have some new insight regarding it. We are to slough off our old beliefs, those handed to us by family, tribe, society, etc., and reframe our thinking about what is valuable and worthwhile. This gets us closer to "world-upside-down," closer to one another in terms of intimate care and relationship, and closer to God.

So, feng that shui, inside and out.