Hey everyone-

I know I’ve been MIA for a few weeks, but I’m back. There’s been a lot of change going on in the Williams household…good change…and so my mind has been preoccupied with the new adjustments.

Anyways, I was looking through my stuff and I noticed I collect paper. LOTS OF PAPER. This paper takes the forms of printer paper, looseleaf paper, notebooks, journals - and books - lots of books. It’s partially because I am a writer but it’s also because of something else…..

I like CHAOS. A part of my brain loves to be surrounded with stuff. It’s like a person with anger issues who feels comfortable shouting and cussin’ under pressure. Or a functioning alcoholic who downs a drink every morning for breakfast before heading off to work. Or a shopaholic who needs to swipe that credit card to satisfy some mysterious void.

I like paper - in all forms. Every time I say I’m going to clear out the clutter, I just end up collecting more.

Why?

I’ve thought about this and I’ve come to one conclusion: It’s all mental. I need to clear out the mental clutter before I can clear out the physical clutter. Jesus said: “It’s not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man” (Matthew 15:11, NASB). To place this verse in context, the religious folk were asking Jesus why his disciples don’t wash their hands before eating bread. They were focused on the outside appearance…just like I have been beating myself up for collecting junk.

Jesus is in effect saying (this is Preslaysa’s paraphrase): ‘No, no Preslaysa, you have it all wrong. It’s not the failure to declutter your house which makes you dirty. It’s what’s in your heart that makes you dirty.’ Ouch, but it’s true.

He continues to say in the passage: “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man” (Matthew 15: 17-20, NASB).

So I’ve been like the religious folk, obessively concerned with how the outside of my house looks and not focused on the inside - on me. What debilitating thought patterns lead me to hoard? What’s in my heart?

What’s in yours?