Spiritual Junk

If ye then be risen with Christ,

seek those things which are above,

where Christ sitteth on the right

hand of God.

Set your affection on things above,

not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3:1,2

About 45 years ago, I was a social worker in the Chicago area, but primarily working in neighboring Indiana. One day, a fellow worker brought a newspaper article to work that she found in the Chicago Daily News. Something had been discovered about a very nice lady, living in a nice neighborhood, who had very nice neighbors in the Chicago area. It was known that this particular lady was the head housekeeper in a huge mansion located on the upper north side of Chicago on Michigan Avenue. At the time, the family living in this mansion was a very well known family in the Chicago area.

Every evening, the very nice lady, came home to her basement apartment in a nice neighborhood, often waving to her very nice neighbors as she arrived home. This was the known routine for this lady and for those who knew her for several years. One day though, something strange began to happen. The neighbors noticed a horrible stench emanating from her basement apartment. The neighbors tried for a long time to ignore the terrible odor but it became increasingly worse. The straw that broke the camel's back though was when neighbors every now and then could see rats coming from the apartment. The building where this very nice lady lived was an older building with a family living in the upper part of the house. By the way, it was the very nice lady who owned the building and was renting the upper area to the nice young family. It was obvious that the entire building was being affected. The young family had tried to talk with the lady about the problem to no avail so they moved out without saying anything to anyone. 

Things got worse and worse. No one could imagine however, what all was in that basement apartment. Today, we might be able to imagine what it might have been because we can turn on a TV and see any number of programs about hoarding. When city inspectors answered complaints and checked on the house, they couldn't believe what they saw. There really was nothing that could be done but to immediately try to clean the place out.  City officials brought in employees with shovels to clean out the apartment but that wasn't going well. Finally, the city condemned the house, brought in a bulldozer,flattened the place and carried off the remains.

The shock of it all was that this very nice lady, from a very nice neighborhood, with very nice neighbors always looked pristine in her black and white housekeeper's uniform. Every hair was in place, appropriate makeup applied and rarely anything amiss in her grooming. People in the neighborhood were more than shocked with what they witnessed happening when the city came to take care of the problem. The very nice lady was forced to move to another very nice neighborhood with hopefully very nice neighbors and I often wondered if her problem just repeated itself.

Our churches are full of people carrying around a bunch of junk. I'm talking about people who are knee deep in sin, sinful habits, sinful attitudes but who hold high positions in a church. Oh, they look good, smell good and appear to have things all together in their lives but inside, they stink and never do anything to try to solve the problem of hoarding sinful ways they have come to hang onto for dear life. I've often wondered if the overall church in America had members willing to sell out to the Lord, clean up their lives and shovel out all the sinful junk from their lives if that couldn't be the beginning of a revival that would sweep our country like a wild fire. 

Even within the confines of our Christian world, we've established our own “political correctness.” I heard recently of a deacon who got into an affair with another deacons wife. He may still be on the deacon board for all I know. We have trouble makers in our churches whose behavior is never confronted by church leaders. We have ungodly people holding various church positions. Most people know the testimonies of these people are all but nil. It's interesting to me that such ungodly ones would even be interested in attending church let alone holding an office.

I recently sat near an officer in a church who sat during the sermon filing her nails. I've been in church auditoriums and heard a very familiar sound that drives me nuts....nail clippers. There are adults who misbehave more in church than little children and they are often “name brand” people who are known by most. These are just indicators of deeper problems...junk in a life that needs cleaned out. The sad thing is that we are talking about folks who claim the name of Christ, who are thought by most to be strong, upstanding Christians. They look good, smell good, say the right things and appear to have spiritual lives all together. However the odor of iniquity and rats of sin in the lives of such pretenders come to the surface sooner or later.

For many years, I have suggested a way for any Christian to take spiritual inventory and that is found in Colossians 3. Paul makes very clear those things a Christian needs to put off and other things to put on. Our lives can be cluttered by sin that we don't even recognize anymore. We still look good, have a nice smile, carry a Bible, and hold a church position but like that lady in Chicago, she had her secret and her secret reeked with an indescribable stench. How would the basement of our spiritual lives look to others if we opened up the doors for everyone to see. How shocked would others be to see our spiritual junk.

In Colossians 3, Paul gives a long list of things to put off. He addresses the problem of moral sin that can take any number of forms. He also speaks of things like anger, wrath, malice, filthy communication, lying...all are of the old life. Then Paul gives us some things we are to put on … mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forgiving one another and more are listed. (Galatians 5 gives us the list of the fruit of the Spirit that should also be a part of our "put on" list.)

This chapter is a wonderful one, a convicting one that speaks to us of our wrongdoing but also convicts us to be more Christlike in every way possible that is made possible by the strengthening of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to be a very nice Christian who attends a very nice church with very nice Christians, hoarding things in my life that would be not only sickening to them but would grieve God in every way. I don't want God to have to come with His bulldozer to clean me up. I would hope for us that we will walk in such close fellowship with Him that when He convicts us of wrongdoing, we immediately respond in sorrow and repentance. I want to be like some friends I have, that being around them is like a breath of fresh spiritual air. May it be so for us all.

Dear Jesus...it's for my sin You died. How can I ever treat any sin lightly, almost hugging it and enjoying it. I don't want to ever get used to sin in my life. It never stays the same but grows and I ask You, Holy Spirit to convict me when I either knowingly or unknowingly sin. Give me Your power to be an overcomer so that others will be able to see more of You and less of me. I love You, my Savior. Amen