It has many compartments!
I was very excited about my recent class reunion, but I was unsure about everything. How should I do my hair, what shall I wear, how much makeup should I put on, etc.? As the minutes ticked down, to the time we should leave to be on time, my final decision was to be myself. At the end of the day, you want people to know who you really are. That decided, hair, makeup, and clothes picked out and put on, I grabbed my purse to head out the door. Halfway to the car the strap on my purse broke and panic set in, are we going to be late now? I rush back into the house grab another purse, run back out to the car and start transferring the necessary things for the evening.
The next day I went shopping for a new purse, and I looked for convenience and functionality. I never look for high-end fashion or bling. After shopping several stores and rejecting most of the suitcases I saw, (that some ladies would call purses), I settled on a small but multi-pocketed purse. Retrieving my old purse when I got home, I began sorting and transferring all the things ladies can’t live without into my new purchase. When I finished I gathered up my purse because I had to run an errand, but I could not find my phone anywhere. I checked my purse, it was not there, checked my bedroom, the kitchen, the bathroom, the office and the living room, but my phone was nowhere to be found. I even ran out to the car and checked the console and under the seats, but to no avail the phone was not there. No problem I thought, I’ll just call it and listen for the ring, but I could not find the phone even with the ringer. I went and got my purse again, and beginning with one pocket, I searched each and every one, lo and behold I found my phone! It was tucked away in one of the many compartments. With that success I went and got my errands done. I’ve had this purse for less than a week, and I still can’t find where I put everything. Regardless of my efforts to be very organized, there are just so many compartments, things just hide.
This reminds me of how we try to compartmentalize our lives. We have a place for everything, and like everything in its place. We have subtitles in our minds like; housecleaning, child rearing, personal hygiene, relationships, and at the end of this list we have devotions or our relationship with God. This is the way we have tried to control the chaos of our life, by keeping things in their proper compartment. When things don’t stay in their neat little areas we begin feeling inadequate, and frustrated. There are only so many hours in the day, and each one of us can only do so much, so we put things in the order of importance, or at least what we think is important. While we think this is productive, our hearts are often left empty, because try as we might we cannot always accomplish everything. While searching for organization and balance, we inadvertently have caused emptiness and chaos.
Could this be because we have gotten the order of things wrong? Perhaps what we have put at the end of our list should be in the front? We have always tried to always be upbeat and happy, hiding what we are really feeling or longings for things we’ve given up on over the years. The problem is we have so many compartments in our lives and hearts we don’t know where we have stored everything, or where we have hidden them way. Do we have things in our past we want to keep hidden, and have stuffed them in a dark corner? So, how do we make order and sense of all this?
We can tenderly acknowledge the propensity to compartmentalize our lives, and hand the reins of our lives over to God. Put our devotions and fellowship with Christ first and foremost, and watch the other things fall into their proper places. He knows our hearts, every wish, prayer, and dark little corner. If we place Him first in our lives, He will help us through our stressful busy days, our mundane chores and tasks of life. He will bring us comfort, joy, and peace, if we let Him have control. Many of us, (especially me), are a little bit of control freaks, even leaning toward OCD when it comes to our lives. Trust comes at a very high price, and we are not always willing to give up those reins. But if we read the whole chapter of Psalms 139, we will begin to understand that turning over the reins are exactly what we need to do, because He can bring order from our chaotic life.
As parents it is important to teach our children that Jesus can be their very best friend, closer than any physical person on earth. Read together with them the 139th Psalm, and help them realize the joy of having a Heavenly Father who knows them inside out. Teach them to let God guide their footsteps and keep them safe in the center of His will.
We as authors, must keep our minds organized to keep our stories from becoming confusing. It is hard to bring organization out of chaos, so it is important that we keep our minds and hearts in the right balance. I find that balance by letting God be in control of my life, keeping things in the proper order, or compartment if you will, reminding myself on a daily basis there is nothing I can think, no place where I can go, or anything I can do, that He does not see and hear. This is a choice I freely make because I want His guidance and His help every day of my life.
For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
Jeremiah 16:17, 17:10, 23:24
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Proverbs 28:13
Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
Psalms 19:12, 44:21
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Isaiah 29:15
For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Ecclesiastics 12:14
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 2:16, 6:26