Threshold

While my husband works late, I clean the yard and garden rearranging the furniture to give it a perfect set up. There’s a wall hanging now and a romantic sitting area in a cozy nook with two Adirondack chairs. A set of lawn chairs are coupled under a bough of bougainvillea and a cute flower table and chairs are up front for the girls. Walking into my yard feels wonderful. Safe. Inviting. Comfortable.

Then I open the door to my laundry room and storage shed. Trying to get to the light switch in the back room is like watching the kid in Family Circus open the hall closet. I’m not sure what’s going to fall down on top of me. I crush shells under foot that toppled over weeks ago as I squeeze past piles of paint buckets and bulging boxes. My bike is covered with overflowing crates and drying towels.

And how is that like my life?

My outside is inviting, comfortable and appropriately arranged. My inside is over flowing with snares to snag me when I get too close to a teetering pile of old baggage. As I cross the threshold of the door from the perfect outdoor yard into this bizarre sanctum of disaster, reality hits me. I want my inside as beautiful and comfortable as my outside.

Psalm 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.” He sees the inside of my home just as well as he sees the inside of my heart and mind. That fact compels me to do some personal cleaning, purging, and remodeling.

Denying our boundaries, doing more, filling our lives with stuff, things, and debt are habits for Americans now. But God has called us to a higher place and a different focus. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

His will is to cross that threshold with me – and you – from one clean, inviting space into another.


By Nancy Lucas
356 words
September 27, 2006