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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Eleanor Jeans

Decluttering

Good morning.

I moved house recently. I was very grateful for the removal company who packed for me. But one of the most useful things I found about moving house was the decluttering, working out what things I hadn’t used for 10 years, or that I had duplicate or even triplicate copies of certain books, or CDs.

When I moved, I had the help of my parents and a good friend. One day I tasked my dad with the job of unpacking my files and sheet music in an upstairs room. Needless to say, every now and then, all we could hear from that room was my father saying my name in an exasperated way ‘Eleanor Jeans’ when he unpacked a file I had kept from 30 or more years ago. He discovered tax returns from the early 2000s and notes from my A-levels.

These had all been hidden away in a cupboard I didn’t use in my old house. They were out of sight and out of mind. But they were there! I needed to declutter, although moving home to do so is a little excessive!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, a day in the Christian calendar which is a bit like a Spiritual decluttering. This is traditionally a day to confess sins and be absolved in preparation for Lent. It even becomes a time to declutter our fridges with the traditional pancakes. But like my hidden away clutter, I know that there are things I can’t hide from God. Yet, his love and forgiveness is so much more than I can imagine.

I pray that we may know love and forgiveness in every corner of our lives.

Amen

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