Time to Clean Out and Clean Up

Laura Parker in an article for National Geographic titled “Plastic Runs Through It” writes…
“The Ganges River is one of the world’s largest freshwater outlets, after the Amazon and the Congo. The headwaters emerge from a glacier high in the western Himalayas and then drops down steep mountain canyons to India’s fertile northern plain. Just after it merges with the Brahmaputra, the Ganges empties into the Bay of Bengal. It supports more than a quarter of India’s 1.4 billion people, all of Nepal, and part of Bangladesh.

But sadly, the Ganges has also long been one of the world’s most polluted rivers. The river is befouled by poisonous bi-products from hundreds of factories and towns. Arsenic, chromium, and mercury combine with the hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage that flow into the river on a daily basis.

But despite countless studies and evidence proving the river's polluted state, environmentalists have gained little traction in cleaning up the river. Why?

The Ganges River is a sacred waterway worshipped by a billion Hindus as Mother Ganga, a living goddess with power to purify the soul, and to cleanse itself. A recent article in National Geographic explains: ‘There is this belief that the river can clean itself. If the river can clean itself, then why should we have to worry about it? Many people say the river cannot be polluted; it can go on forever.’”

Just like rivers don’t clean themselves from the junk that contaminates, neither do houses clean themselves of the junk that accumulates. Alison and I have begun a clean out process in our home. It’s going to be a yearlong endeavor for sure. It’s amazing how many useless items you can accumulate over the course of 43 years together. Our strategy is to go from room to room, cabinet to cabinet. So far, we’ve tackled a couple of lightly cluttered rooms with great success. But what remains is far more challenging and time consuming… we are “eating the elephant one bite at a time” so to speak.

What we’ve noticed is that through the years we have become masters at relocating items rather than getting rid of items. It would have been easier if along the way we had dealt with “things” instead of relocating them. None-the-less, it is time to clean out and clean up!

As I thought about the Ganges River, and our personal efforts to clean things out, I couldn’t help but think about how in a similar way we all allow things to clutter our souls and crowd our path and pursuit of God. Junk that pollutes our lives and souls. Things that we need to deal with and not live with! The Ganges River is polluted not because it can’t be cleaned up, but because they don’t believe it needs to be cleaned up and are perfectly content to live with the filthy river and even worship it.

Do you have a “Ganges” running through your soul that you have simply gotten used to? Are there “things” that have slowly accumulated in your life that are blocking the way to a dynamic walk with Christ? If so, you probably know what they are, and you just need to deal with them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Because they accumulate over time, they can be hard to spot, so ask the Lord to make them known and begin a fresh journey of clean out and clean up. And remember, God is always trying to take you someplace new. I love being your Pastor!

For God’s Glory Alone,
Pastor Ray

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