I was trying to find something to watch on TV one night and stumbled upon the show Hoarders. Have you ever seen it? I don’t know why I sat there & watched an hour detailing the condition and subsequent clean up of a house filled with trash. But I couldn’t seem to turn the channel – something about it intrigued me.
As a part of the show, they brought in a psychiatrist to help the person hoarding understand her dysfunction. Basically, after her husband passed, she just started to throw everything on the floor, so bad that she cannot see the floor in her house any longer. It was a product of bringing the chaos she was feeling inside to the outside. It somehow satisfied her. This went on for 18 years. It wasn’t until the city prepared to take the house away from her and condemn it did she allow someone to come in and help.
As I watched this story unfold, the Holy Spirit asked me – how many times have you hoarded things in your mind, heart, or emotions until you had to get rid of it? How many times do you not want to deal with a bad situation so you stuff it down? How many times have you compromised your health because you don’t want to properly clean up a mess in your mind, heart, or emotions?
We do not have to hoard in order to live an unhealthy life. We just have to leave emotions, thoughts, problems sitting around long enough for them to start to stink, rot, and compromise our health. The structure of our personhood – the being God has uniquely created – can be compromised and be set to be condemned; it isn’t then we start to clean ourselves up.
I had the privilege and honor to be a few people’s counselor a few years back. As I head their stories, I saw how months, years, decades of repressed emotions from past problems have caused their lives to spin out of order. Now, they come and sit on a couch to ask a perfect stranger for help.
There is absolutely no shame in doing this. God created the act of counseling for a reason and He loves it when His children find healing. If you find yourself in a place where you think you are spinning out of control, I encourage you to seek help. But before you do that, before you reach out to your BFF, your mom, or the Internet, consider another solution.
Turn to God:
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
I Peter 5:6-7 NKJV
Sometimes, we need to get on our knees, seek His face, and ask our precious loving Father to help us clean the mess we allowed to get overrun with hurt, bitterness, and frustration up. Help us clean up the consequences of our avoidance. Put us on a track to getting better. Placing people in our lives who can help us get to where we need to be.
If you find yourself in a situation like this, you are not alone. I’ve been there, as well as many others. There is a solution – it may get hard – but it will get better. Trust that God has it all worked out as soon as you lay it in His hands.
Be blessed my friends! Never, ever stop seeking.
Boldly Radiant 