Recently I’ve tackled a spring clean of the spare bedroom, which is very badly named as the one thing this very small room doesn’t have is any ‘spare’ room, being much smaller than the one in the image below!
Used occasionally, as space for an overnight guest, its main function is storing out of season or rarely worn clothes. It also acts as a laundry drying area in winter and as a general dumping ground for things which have no particular or obvious home. We don’t have anyone staying in the room very often, which is a relief as reaching the bed or even getting into the room to attempt to reach the bed can often be a challenge!
At this time of year though, with the festive food goodies and Christmas wrapping paper which occupied the spare bed during December and January gone, I can begin to see a bit more space. Now’s the time when I need to go through everything in the room, decide what needs to stay there and where it should be stored, and then to think about the best way of getting rid of unwanted items.
As I began my big tidying session I swept everything off the bed onto the floor or, in the case of the most elderly of the soft toys who call the bed home, moved them more gently to the bedside cabinet. Then I covered the rest of the floor in several layers of empty ‘might need one day’ cardboard boxes, rolls of wrapping paper, my late dog’s sheepskin basket liner and favourite chew toy, and a pile of garment bags.
I moved further and further down the room dragging things around, until I was trapped between the beside cabinet and an unwanted roll of carpet in the corner. Realising that I must, after over two years, get rid of the carpet, I decided to move it to into the hall so that I could measure it for possible sale or donation.
I picked it up, balanced it precariously under one arm and then saw that there was no clear route to the doorway. Which meant that I had to put it down again and then spend time moving the piles of things on the floor around, like chess pieces on a board, simply to clear a path from one side of this small room to the doorway so I could get the carpet out. I’d done the equivalent of painting myself into a corner.
How often do we feel that we’ve been backed into a corner by circumstances? How often, when we can’t see a way through difficulties which may seem to have come upon us out of the blue, but which are completely overwhelming us, do we simply try and move things around or juggle the pieces rather than dealing with them?
Or perhaps we’ve ‘taken a stance’ on something without looking at the situation from other angles than our own, and then found that there’s no obvious way back and no right way out; or at least not one which our pride will let us take? We can harm others as well as ourselves when that happens.
Human life will always be messy and it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by all we have to face. We can’t think what to do first, so, sometimes we do nothing and just get buried deeper and deeper. Just moving things from one pile to another under our own strength is never going to work out well.
Fortunately, however ‘boxed in’ we feel, there is always a way out: a route which will signpost us through the muddle and onto a clear pathway to a sense of peace.
If we look above and across all of the mess we’ve made, out of any corners we’re backed into, towards the doorway where Jesus is standing, holding the door wide open and reaching out his arms to gather us up, he’ll lift us free of what’s been overwhelming us and gently highlight the right way out of those situations.
I hope that any spring cleaning, clearing or tidying you do doesn’t leave you trapped in a corner, especially if you don’t like spiders; that’s often where they tend to be.
If it’s a tricky situation which is trapping you, release it to Jesus in prayer. He can never be overwhelmed with the messy bits of our lives and can always sweep a space big enough and clear enough for his light, love and reassurance to shine into.
My spare room is looking much clearer now. I can even see the colour of the bed cover again, after many months. An overnight visitor could certainly reach the bed safely now: if they didn’t trip over the roll of carpet now in the hall on their way to the room!
Sunlight Through the Shadows 