Lately, we’ve been cleaning and organizing our pantry, laundry room, and kitchen. I easily spot things we haven’t used in years. I make a neat pile of donations. I also find cans of soup in the recesses of my pantry from nearly a decade ago.
Before a new semester begins, it’s time to cast off all those things that have expired or no longer aid us. It’s time to ask if the things around us help or harm. I remember this work is both physical and spiritual. I consider the command in Hebrews 12:1: “. . . 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. . . ”
What in my environment hinders me in the race God has marked out? What sin entangles me? This evaluation matters not simply for one time; it’s a regular practice just like the way we clean out a pantry. We attend to what accumulates in the soul as we sort and cast off what we no longer need or should want.