Organizational Nonsense

Several months ago, after trying to get one thing out of my spice cabinet and having fifteen others fall out on my head AGAIN (!#^@*), I decided it was time to _actually_do something about this mess besides complain and semi-swear about it.


So I pulled everything out of the cabinet and was surprised to see how much really cool stuff was hiding in back of my cabinet.

Chaos!!  Chaos!!

that's A LOT of coriander...good thing we eat it 'most every day...

baking stuff....too bad I don't bake much....

So, we sorted and got rid of, labelled and reorganized....and it was beautiful.

Baking stuff all together on the top shelf....herbs together, seeds together,  all the bags poured into jars and labelled, all the spice blends snuggled up together.  It's lovely.  Really.  I was really feeling great about myself.  And then this thought came to me:

Child, you've just spent an hour organizing hundreds of dollars worth of seasonings. 

Seasonings.  Not even food

that would keep you alive.  Do you know

that people are starving?  Starving.  Are you sure your priorities are in the right order?

I would like to think that my cabinet of spices is no big deal.....but is it? 

How do I justify it to this baby's Mama?

How do I explain to her why my babies are healthy, clean and well fed.

Or how about to these people?



Do you think that they would be sympathetic to my dissatisfied heart about my house because its a double-wide in a really nice park with no room for a real garden - and not a real house with a big yard and a tree swing? 

My life's really tough, isn't it?

And I moan and groan because I've overfed myself and so some of my clothes don't fit and I don't have money to buy new ones.  Or my husband blessedly has a job in this tough economy, but he's not making enough money for my taste.  Or my Bible isn't the perfect translation.  Or I can't afford the most perfect curriculum for my homeschooled kids - while all over the world, children are doomed to a life of illiteracy because they lack a pencil.  A freaking pencil....

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(photo from http://thepencilproject.com/ 
check them out....I think we'll be getting to know these folks very soon!)

I'm not saying that it's wrong to research good curriculum or buy new clothes or even have a really nice house.  I'm saying it's wrong to have those things first - first on our minds, first in our checkbooks, first in our hearts. 

What kind of wretch am I that I won't buy cheap mayonnaise because it doesn't taste as good, and then go home and wonder if I can afford to make my monthly commitment of $64 to Food for the Hungry for two sponsored children? 

What, I'm really not willing to go without one bit of food for my over-sated self, one bit of comfort in a house crammed full of comforts, one single ounce of selfishness to meet the basic needs of a brother or sister in Christ? 

Maybe I'm overthinking this.  Exaggerating.  Making something out of nothing.  Maybe.  But one thing I KNOW for certain - one day I will have to stand and face the Lord Jesus in judgement and I will have to give an accounting for my life.  And I seriously don't think a well-ordered spice cabinet, a well-groomed lawn or even well-educated children are going to win me any favor. 

If I have any hope of hearing, "Well done..." my life, my heart, my priorities, my goals, my dreams, my checkbook, my waistline, my closet, my attitude - they all have to begin to change NOW.  And change radically. 

My whole life has to be about Kingdom work....about making sure that EVERYONE - from LadyBug, Firecracker and the Griz to my neighbors to my brothers and sister around the world - knows that the Lord Jesus is in love with them.  That He seeks them.  That He wants, more than anything, to wrap them in His mercy and goodness - no matter who they, where they are or what they are doing.  That the Bible is not ancient history, not a collection of moralistic fables, not an instruction book - but a LOVE STORY written to and for and about them. 

It's ok to organize our kitchens....but it's probably also about time to organize our priorities.