Emotional Junk Drawer: Let us RUN!

First, I would like to take a moment to apologize for the long absence. I care for children who already have really big emotional junk drawers and that means that life rarely goes as planned. My first priority and my mission on this earth will always be to the children first. So when I stop writing it is because God has placed a more pressing matter before me to take care of.
Second, I would like to say 'Hello' to our new readers and friends in Canada, Ireland, and Germany! I LOVE how God joins us all together as if we were just sharing tea or coffee around the living room talking about the joys and trials in life. So welcome and let's get started.
While I've been away, I've had so much time to pray about and sift through my own emotional junk drawer while trying to help my bonus babies pry open theirs. One fact kept coming up: junk causes relationship issues. In particular, it hurts our relationship with God like we talked about before! We are so overwhelmed, so beaten down, so weighted down-how can we be with Him over there when we are buried over here? Honestly, I began to feel even worse about myself. The more I saw how much emotional mess I had and how much I had to get rid of, the bigger my mountain seemed. I mean, I have like YEARS of junk. It all just began to feel like too much. I realized all at once, THAT'S THE REASON WE HAVE EMOTIONAL JUNK DRAWERS! We hate the way this stuff makes us feel so we stuff it. Ugh, right? Yet, we can't just leave it there to fester like a toe fungus *gag* we have to deal with it honestly. We have to open it up and dump it out with a really good friend or two and Christ (and if you have trauma a therapist is a good idea!!).
I came to Ephesians 3:14-21 emphasis mine.

 For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

I read this passage and I cried. Like the good, ugly kind of crying. I had forgotten in all the chaos and piles of pain that I was not doing this in my own strength and that even when I could not love myself, Christ loved me in a way that I could not fathom. It is this junk and this hurt and this pain and this weight of whatever that keeps us from God because we do not recognize that it is HE that works within us. We hide, we avoid, we bury, we busy, we overcompensate, we control, we become addicted. We do everything except the easiest thing of all because we simply forget that grace is meant for us right here, right now. We knew about grace when we became a Christian, but somehow we just don't think that it covers the junk we have tucked away. Christ can die for all sinners, but our junk is for us to deal with. Does that really make sense?

 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 emphasis mine.

We are surrounded by those who, by faith, persevered. They weren't perfect, they didn't get it all right either. Their faith is an encouragement to us. As we climb out of bed for one more day of dealing with chronic pain or one more day of dealing with our junk or one more day of fighting the battle, let us not pick through our rubbish like it's a flea market sale; we aren't keeping any of it! Let us throw it off! Why? Here's my favorite part of the verses, LET US RUN! We cannot run, we cannot even walk when we are weighted down by what weighs us down! Practically, we have to dump our junk at the feet of Jesus so we can face it head on and then, we have to fix our eyes on Him. You cannot go back in the past and change what happened. It's time to change the thinking of now, to add the grace of now, to accept Christ's love now, and to be present with God now. It's time to stop the loop tape in our heads from the past and make a new one for today. But how?

Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees,
    that I may follow it to the end.
Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law
    and obey it with all my heart.
 Direct me in the path of your commands,
    for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes
    and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
    preserve my life according to your word.
Fulfill your promise to your servant,
    so that you may be feared.
Take away the disgrace I dread,
    for your laws are good.
How I long for your precepts!
    In your righteousness preserve my life. Psalm 119:33-40

Wounds take time to heal, God has all of eternity so He doesn't mind  :) Negative thinking? Grace covers that. Childhood wounds that taint your perception? Grace covers that. Piles of pain causing trust issues? Addiction issues? Control issues? Self-esteem issues? Grace covers that too. Practice memorizing, meditating on, and/or journaling the verses we studied today as you dump your junk this week. It's time to empty the junk drawer, unload our burdens and run like the wind back to Christ where we belong. Let us RUN!