Hoarders, Idols and Trinity Cleaning Services

Have you ever watched the show. "Hoarders, Buried Alive?"  I have seen clips of it but have never been able to watch a whole show, it just completely creeps me out.  This afternoon, I started to think about how that show is a physical example of what is spiritually going on with many of us.  Ok, I know most of you are not living in piles of worthless junk or surrounding yourself with so much garbage that your house should be condemned, but what about in the spirit?  I have seen enough in the clips to know that the people on this show are truly sick, they feel that they can't let go of the things they have collected, even at the expense of losing the ones they love or their own health.  Their heaps, piles and collections become their fortress, their separation from the world beyond their walls.


I don't usually think about crazy reality shows throughout my day, but this I feel was prompted by the Lord and wasn't just random.  For the past few weeks I have been pondering  2 Chronicles 29 and 30.  This is the story of Hezekiah when he becomes king.  His father had turned away from God, worshipped Baal, sacrificed his own sons and closed the temple.  Hezekiah turns his heart to God, and in the first month of his reign he calls the Levites and Priests together and tells them to sanctify themselves (purify themselves).  He has seen the terrible state that Judah is in (wars and captivity) and he wants to turn his nation back to God.


"They gathered their brethren and sanctified themselves and went in, as the king had commanded by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.


The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the Lord's house.  And the Levites carried it out to the brook Kidron."  
2 Chron. 29:15-16


It took them eight days to take out all the stuff!  (I imagine it looking like the houses on Hoarders!) Years of disrepair, dust, dirt and even idols had been allowed.  I have felt prompted of the Lord that it is time to sanctify ourselves and His house.  That many "temples" look more like Hoarders within than House Beautiful... what do I mean by that?  The physical temple was full of things that were not meant to be there - things that prevented the people from worshiping within it, idols that had never meant to be within those walls.  


We are temples, temples that often contain things within them that prevent us from worshipping freely, idols of heart that were never meant to be within us, that keep us from fully trusting, serving and loving God and keeping us from fully receiving His love for us.  Psychologists say that hoarders keep things unnecessarily because they develop intense emotional bonds and can't let go of them, even when keeping those things are detrimental to them.  So often we carry within us emotional wounds and baggage that we cling to, that we allow to become a part of our personality even at the expense of own own futures, our health and our relationships.  


The temple was also full of idols.  I know that most of us wouldn't think of bowing down to some type of golden calf as if it were God, but a better definition of an idol is anything that we place before God.  We can make all kinds of things an idol.. our work, people, anything we give more importance.  What about when we refuse to let go of pain from our past, unforgiveness (even unforgiveness towards ourselves) or an unrepented of or undealt with sin... isn't that in essence making it an idol, putting it before God in that we will not let go of it and trust Him to heal us and overcome?


Like the people who intervene in the lives of those hoarders for their own good, to help them to regain their lives and be free from the things that are literally imprisoning them, God wants to intervene in you, because He loves you.  When you receive Christ as your Savior you are justified - declared righteous.  Justification is an instant legal declaration, sanctification is a process.  Sanctification is to be "set apart" which happens at salvation, but continues throughout our lives as Holy Spirit works within us to prevent sin and produce spiritual growth - no, we will not be perfect, nor should we try to be.  Sanctification is a purifying of heart, cleansing the temple... it is allowing moving out of the junk so there is more room for Him.  


With the mental picture of "Hoarders" I see that I don't want anything filling this temple other than Him, no more living in the filth that I don't have to live in any more - I want all the junk that needs to thrown out, cleared out - every fear turned to faith, every pain healed by grace, every sin revealed, repented, forgiven.  I want to be a vessel He can flow through, less of me and more of Him.  So like Hezekiah, the Levites and the Priests, I choose sanctification.  Lord,  have Your way, not my will, but Yours...