I read recently that the Italians (of which I am one) have an interesting custom (which I have never participated in). On New Year’s Eve, at midnight, the windows of every house open, and everyone pitches out whatever they absolutely hate-furniture, clothes, dishes, unwanted wedding presents (hopefully not the spouse! 🙂 )-they all come crashing down to the ground. That is what I call some serious housecleaning. Talk about “Look out below!”

Have you ever moved? What a great time to get rid of unwanted our unused items. “Let’s see. I haven’t used this in 10 years. In fact, I forgot I even had it.” Pitch.  “This broken chair I said I was going to fix 6 years ago?” Pitch.

We call it purging. Pack rats need to do some serious purging. Hoarders need to do some serious purging.

Sinners need to do some serious purging. Huh. That includes all of us.  Unless, of course, you have no sin. No guilt. No regret over past actions or thoughts. (stated sarcastically and with tongue-in-cheek). Too many of us carry around garbage from our past. We hoard it. We bury it trying to forget it. But then some event, some word, some action, some thing, brings it all back and we are forced to deal with it. Maybe we had buried it so deeply we had forgotten it, but there it is!

2 Cor. 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (Both Scripture from ESV)  Both of those verses talk about some serious purging. Of getting rid of sin in order to find new life.

Purging your house of old, unused, useless trash, i.e. garbage, is helpful and sometimes necessary. Purging your life of sin-past, present, and future-is absolutely necessary. Have you cleaned house?