Cleaning Closets

“Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

~John  15:2

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

~1 Corinthians 13:12

I stepped into my teaching office Monday morning and nearly suffocated in a rack of billowy sleeves. I navigated around it, stepping over scattered props, and slumped my bags down on my desk.

“Hi,” came a muffled greeting from another rack. Stephanie, our school’s drama director, curled herself around the costumes. “Sorry about the mess. I did make sure they didn’t leave anything on your desk.”

“Thanks.”

It wasn’t totally unexpected. Due to a lack of office space, I had taken up residence in the drama closet when I started teaching last year. It’s generally a hassle-free arrangement, but twice a year, during production week, I’m forced to relax my organizational standards to include wigs and hairspray on top of my grading stack. Our students finished their (excellent) performance of “The Music Man” last Saturday.

Not unexpected, but still stressful. Though there was a path to my desk Monday morning, the path disappeared frequently, occasionally just at the moment I needed to rush in and grab books for my next class. I reminded myself that I was glad Stephanie was sorting, stuffing, shelving. Someday soon it would be clean, even if I didn’t know when that day was.

Hearing a vacuum around noon today, I avoided the office altogether, opting to plan whatever subjects I’d taken from the room earlier.

God’s pruning is also messy. When God decides to pry my heart away from money, friends, reputation, the process feels like using training wheels after a bike race.

This afternoon, I opened my office door and breathed a relaxing sigh. Stephanie had left shelves stacked neatly with labeled boxes, two costume racks along the side wall, and a thoroughly-vacuumed carpet. The office was cleaner than it’s been since last fall. My heart swelled with gratitude and I silently kicked myself for having been frustrated.

Someday, I’ll have a perfectly organized, cleaned, radiant life. But until then, I’ll live in this God-ordained mess, because that’s his plan, and it’s worth it.

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Life’s messiness is the focus of my friend Amy’s blog. She has lots of valuable and entertaining thoughts, so swing on by!