Friday Reflections: Out and In

One of my favorite quotes, which has motivated me countless times in clearing space in my life, is from the forward of a book I read a number of years ago, during a communal Lenten Fast. It said, 

“taking in, taking in, taking in. It clogs the soul.”

I think about this quote a lot.

It’s easy to think the answer to clogging our lives, homes and souls is to just stop taking in. Or to get rid of the clogs and stop there. 

Which brings me from one of my favorite quotes…to what used to be my least favorite parable:

In these verses, as in so many other verses, Jesus was replying to Pharisees’ questions and accusations by offering them an illustration: 

 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”

I always hated this passage.

I figured at best, it was a reason not to bother cleaning. At worst, it was hopelessly depressing.

Either way, I missed the point. 

Until someone sat with me and explained it in terms of nature abhorring a vacuum. 

The person cleaning house stopped before a crucial point. They stopped at the emptying. 

We see this all over:

We stop a time-consuming job or habit and the saved time automatically gets sucked up by something else.

Condemned buildings and abandoned lots are cleared out, with no plans for ongoing utilization of the space and they become overrun with drugs and crime.

We stop a bad habit, only to find we’ve replaced it with a worse habit. 

It’s not enough to stop taking in.

It’s not enough to clean out.

It matters what we then fill the clearing with.

When Jesus overturned tables and cleared out the temple, he wasn’t simply getting rid of clutter. 

It wasn’t about the “out.”

It was about the “in.”

It was about what, and more importantly WHO he was making space for.