WHAT TO KEEP & WHAT TO THROW AWAY 2

". . . but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).



The psychological/emotional/spiritual house cleaning, which must be done periodically, is not an easy thing to do either. Not only are there old habits and addictions to be dealt with, but there are a lot of traumas to deal with too. How is it done?



Yesterday, I had some business that took me to Spirit Lake, Iowa. On the return trip I made a short excursion around to where my grandfather's cottage had been on west lake Okoboji. The cottage is gone now, replaced by a much larger house. A flood of memories came back to me as I looked out over the lake; almost all of them good. One memory of this lake is actually a dream. In the months following the deaths of my brother and my dad, I began to have a recurring dream of swimming out towards the middle of the bay--I was too far out to get back to our dock but too far away from the other shore to swim there either. I was drowning! I had that dream several times--enough times so that I talked to a psychologist professor friend of mine about it. He told me that I was having a normal grief experience. My psychologist friend, being a Christian, was affirming and assuring that, though we cannot get back to the familiar, happy and safe times of yesterday, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will take us to the far shore that is infinitely better. I haven't had that dream in a couple of years, but seeing the lake yesterday made me think of it.

Granted, there are issues that are not easy to let go of, so much so, in fact, that you might need some one to help you with them; do not be afraid to see a counselor. However, the rational hope we have in Christ helps us understand the relative value of all the other stuff we have in our psychological store room. Our hope helps us to sort them out and let all the junk go.

Grace&Peace;
Tom

I wanted to add this verse to the posting of yesterday because it is a verse that reinforces my argument that having hope in Christ helps us deal with the internal house keeping that we all need to do. "And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure" (I John 3:3).