The other day I decided to clean out my room.
You see when I was in Cambodia and Laos my wonderful mother painted my room, bought me a new desk, and bedding. And when I came back I found the bags she had put all the stuff in that was in my desk.
And now, about 2 months later, they are still there.
Sitting...taking up space...getting in the way.
So I started going through all the bags. I had grand visions of carrying my new bookshelves up to my room and arranging everything perfectly, neatly, and in order. I imagined sectioning off part of my room and dedicating it to baking supplies/bookies/study material.
But I started going through the bags.
At the top of my first bag was some electronic stuff. My iPhone packaging, warranties on my keyboard, the first guitar string that I ever changed (I'm an incurable senitmentalist).
But then I got to the good stuff.
Stacks of colored paper from the past three years of academic decathlon. It had consumed my life, and at one time I felt so connected and that it was so important that I absolutely had to save some of the resource guides (especially social science from my junior year when I won a gold medal and economics because I was the wiz kid for economics).
And of course....poetry. Poetry all the way back from about 7th grade. Sappy, disgusting, "what was I thinking when I wrote that?" poetry during those awful middle school years when you were lovesick constantly.
Thank God for his grace and the maturing process.
Poetry was for many years my way of releasing thoughts and feelings. I was never good at keeping a journal so I wrote. Sonnets, free verse, sometimes just short descriptive passages...there was alot of it.
Decathlon materials I can see parting with but my poetry? It held so many memories, the fragility of my youth, the thoughts and experiences of my adolescence, my dreams and imagination running wild.
But it was a part of me that I right then and there decided to let go of. It was something that should have been done long ago.
I guess when I came home from my trip overseas (the first of many more to come!) my focus, perspective, and fervency changed.
I wanted a fresh start and a simpler approach to life, and hanging onto my immaturity and the childish play-things of my youth would not help. I felt suddenly deep inside in that moment that I walked to the trash can with all my youth behind me that I had just stepped into my mature, adult life.
Life is alot like the condition of my room was.
Often times we lose focus and sight of our goals and get distracted. It happens to me all the time. I know the plan, its simple and just requires focus and dedication. And then I think "I really need to learn how to use twitter, I'm so technologically impaired," "I need to work on my relationships with friends and my social life," "I need to work on my wardrobe."
In reality, none of it really matters. Because by the time I master twitter a newer social media network will come out that I'll be clueless about. By the time I've wasted three paychecks on updating my wardrobe next seasons styles will hit the runways. And by the time I set up coffee appointments with friends I'll be so stressed about fitting them all in and trying to be pleasant that I won't even enjoy it.
It's not that there is anything wrong with new clothes, social media, or my friends, but I realize now that its not the main focus. When you focus on the main thing, all the minor things fall into line because my priorities are straight.
The same is true with baking. I work best when I start with a kitchen that is mess free, with all the ingredients where they should be and all the equipment cleaned and put away.
I've so enjoyed some of the conversations I've had with my friends overseas because (especially when we talk about the Word) they confirm this simplicity of life.
So I'm trying to live life without all the complications, and its pretty simple.
Find the plan. Follow it.
1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.I have put away my clutter filled childhood and have stepped into an adulthood where trusting God and following His plan to live a simple life is my focus.
Simple.
