Keith Battle - Spring Cleaning Pt 2. Repairs and Replacements

This is part two of spring cleaning. By my definition, spring cleaning is a time when we go around our home and rummage through our belongings to discover things that may need to go, things that need to be removed, and things that need to be given away or cleaned up. Somebody was telling me today that someone gave them some clothes, and one of the things you do in spring cleaning is go through your closet and look at items that you don’t wear anymore because they are out of style. You give them to someone else who might need them. Like when you see clothes from Sergio Valente—you might remember when it was in style, and you might be thinking about wearing it again. A lot of us have clothes we give away because we can’t fit them anymore. It’s okay when you can’t fit something because you’ve lost weight; you give it away if it’s too big. Most of the stuff that’s too small gets given away because we still hold on to hope, thinking, «I’ll get back into this.» But let’s face it: if you’ve grown, just say you’ve grown. Be careful, though; you’ve grown in maturity. When you grow, you can’t fit everything you used to fit.

You have to look at someone who doesn’t fit, and you know I was going to say nine, but it’s like when you try to put together one of those jigsaw puzzles. It’s so frustrating; you try to force a piece to fit, but it keeps popping up, and you keep trying to flatten it down, but it won’t stay. That’s what you look like when you keep trying to fit into spaces you’ve outgrown. When you’re spring cleaning, sometimes you’ve got to look around at your life and ask, «What have I outgrown? This doesn’t fit me anymore. This used to be cool, but this isn’t even cool anymore.» So that’s part of spring cleaning. Last week, I talked about decluttering. You really don’t need to come to church for us to talk about decluttering your home; you can watch HGTV for that. But what I want to talk about is this home—not your address—where you live and get mail. I’m talking about the home we live in, called the body, and really trying to do what has been the hardest thing in my life: soul work. What are the connections between what I need to clean in that house and what I need to clean in this one? We talked about decluttering last week, and there are two things we focused on: grief and guilt. Many people are stuck and not making progress in their lives because they still haven’t gotten past what they’ve lost. And far be it from me to tell you that what you lost wasn’t invaluable. I can’t imagine some of the losses you’ve experienced, such as the death of friendships, opportunities, marriage, or significant parts of your health.

So many things can be lost. I would never tell you that they didn’t have value, but one thing I can say with certainty is that the fact that you’re listening to me right now tells me that you have outlived what you lost. I’m going to say that again: you outlive what you lost. Look at someone and say, «You outlive what you lost.» Because you have outlived whatever you lost, that means, for whatever reason, God still has you here, which means there’s more life for you to live. You’ve got to come to a place where you ask God to forgive you for whatever mistakes you made, for whatever contribution you made to the loss, and help you to forgive yourself. That’s one of the hardest things for people to do—just forgiving yourself and moving on with your life. I believe you did your best. I don’t believe there’s anyone who has lost anything who didn’t do their best given the hand they were dealt and the circumstances they were in. You did the best you could with the situation you were in. Nobody could have handled it any better. Everyone is an expert on what you should have done with your life, saying things like, «You should have done this, or you should have kept your mouth shut.» But just know that you did your best. It may be a loss, but you’re still here. You’ve got to keep going.

I gave you ten things to help you declutter grief and guilt. Today, I want to talk about repairs and replacements as part two of spring cleaning. When you go through your house, sometimes you identify things that need to be repaired and things that need to be replaced. Now, I will tell you that it doesn’t really matter to me if you follow this, but I think it would be helpful for you to engage with what I’m saying. You shouldn’t just watch me talk; you should participate in this. I believe this message is one you need to write down, because these messages are personal to you, even though I’m sharing my personal story. Here’s why you should take notes now.