Deep Cleaning

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I was asked to help clean out the back storage room yesterday. While I'm finally starting to settle in and learn the ins and outs of the job, I'm still not familiar with all of the themes and events that came before me; therefore, I don't know what's important to keep and what can be thrown away. As such, when I saw the paper cabinet, I immediately said, "I can do the paper." After all, there's not much history involved with paper sorting.

A couple of hours later, surrounded by piles of paper, I was convinced that my co-worker, Donna, had somehow set me up so that she wouldn't have to sort the paper cabinet :-).

Thoroughly and rightfully confused by my accusation, Donna assured me that she hadn't set me up--that she wouldn't have spent nearly as much time or done quite as thorough of a job as me had she taken paper duty. Surprised, I asked what she would have done. She said, "I would have just straightened it up and made it look nice. I wouldn't have sorted it by color or type of any of the stuff you've done. But it looks really nice! You have been a very thorough "J" today (on the Myers Briggs)." :-)

When I sent my boss a picture of the workroom when we had finished, I made the comment, "It looks a lot better than when we started. Some of it is deep cleaned--like the paper cabinet--but some of it is just surface cleaned." I wrote the statement in passing, but it's echoed in my mind ever since.

Yesterday, I deep cleaned the paper cabinet; I surface cleaned the Acteens/Growth storage shelves. Donna, and our assistant Mel, deep cleaned the back workroom and parts of the storage room; she surface cleaned her Women on Mission/Baptist Nursing Fellowship storage shelf. We made sure that everything LOOKED nice, but if you look on my Acteens shelf right now, you'll find some things that I don't need anymore--that could be recycled or thrown away--but that will just sit there, looking nice, until I find the time, energy, and focus to truly clean them out.

Notice those last three words: time, energy, and focus. Deep cleaning, I think, involves all three of those things. It takes time to drag things out, examine what's there, sort it appropriately, figure out what to do with it all, and then put it where it belongs. It takes energy to do the physical moving and to decide what has served its purpose and needs to be purged vs. what needs to stay around for longer. And, depending on what's being cleaned, emotions tend to show up and complicate things with memories and a deep sense of connection to the larger world. When I'm cleaning things out, I always feel horrible about the amount of trash that I'm creating and how trash is littering the world and damaging God's creation! And so it takes focus to remember the point of cleaning anyway--and not to become overwhelmed at the enormity of the task--especially when the process takes much longer than originally anticipated (like happened with me yesterday) or when it seems impossible to begin (like is happening to me now when I think about deep cleaning my office).

Surface cleaning is good and necessary. It keeps things livable and managable on a daily basis. Though our shelves are not deep cleaned, they are organized enough to keep things from falling off and to have enough space to keep things off of the floor--which makes walking possible. Yesterday, we ran out of time for a deep clean. Eventually, though, we are going to have to make the time to deep clean our shelves so that we can add to them the things that make our jobs possible now, in the present, rather than allowing them to become museums of times past. Deep cleaning makes things livable and managable for the long-term.

I don't know about you, but I have some deep cleaning to do...and not just with my "stuff" but also with my heart, soul, and mind. Don't get me wrong: I haven't been sitting stagnant. I've been surface cleaning and paying attention to the places in my life that need deep cleaning. What I've got to do is find the time, energy, and focus to begin a new round of deep cleaning. I've got to believe that the end product will be more functional and satisfying than the current reality--like the paper closet was yesterday! And I've got to trust that the process will be life-giving as it frees me from clutter that binds me to the past and allows no room for the future.

I believe that God is a God of life and creation, of order and beauty, and that God wants us to live our lives in such a way that we are free from the things that hold us back.

You?