Storing Up Treasure

Col. 2:2 “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”

My neighbor is a hoarder. You know the ones you hear about on reality TV shows? She has piles of pallets sitting here and there, wooden crates stacked over here, trash everywhere so much so I feel like I’m living in the county dump until I walk outside and realize this is my neighbor’s treasure.

I saw a meme recently and it said:
“A spotless house is a sign of a wasted life.” 

I kind of took umbrage to that remark because my house is very clean. I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘spotless’ but if you knocked on my door right now I wouldn’t have to run around straightening up before I opened the door. Does that mean I have a wasted life because I see cleanliness as next to Godliness?

Some people who are not too clean might like reading the above meme because it makes them feel good knowing they haven’t wasted their life cleaning their home. Maybe some people take pride in a dirty home, I don’t know, my neighbor sure holds no shame in her mess building, so why do I love and appreciate a clean home?

I was raised in a house with six kids, both of my parents worked so it was up to the two girls to clean the mess left behind by the others and often I found myself cleaning alone. I was married to a man whose mother was a hoarder and at her house, there was a path to the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms but clothes and trashy treasures lying around in case they were needed one day.

What is so funny is that my ex and I would clean her house immaculately when she went on vacation and within a day of her returning home, it was back to the same mess. It was as if the mess cradled them to sleep at night and gave them a secure feeling of safety. 

I used to clean houses for a living (when my back was able) and I loved cleaning for people who couldn’t do the hard labor themselves. I had one lady who would clean before I even got to her home but insisted she didn’t and would pay me to do the finishing touches. Fine by me! 

Now that my back isn’t what it used to be I can’t do the cleaning I would like to do but I still keep a nice house AND have a life. Oh dear, but has all the time I spent cleaning mean I’ve wasted my life? Why do I let a stupid meme get to me? Guilt because I’ve wasted my life cleaning and LIKING it clean?

Just to clarify, I LIKE my house spic-n-span. Now more than ever I appreciate my tidy house you know why because I’m still able to do what I can to satisfy my need-to-be-clean urge! In a couple of years I probably won’t be able to sanitize my house due to disability and I’ll lay there wondering why I wasted all that time cleaning when I could’ve been doing… what? 

Thirteen years ago I left behind every treasure I owned except for what I could fit into a small u-haul truck and most of what I brought was for my son. My cleanliness I brought with me and to this day my home here is as clean as the one I left behind. Cleanliness is a part of who I am. Not for any other reason than the enjoyment of smelling freshly washed linen, newly mopped floors, the aroma of Windex wafting through the air. Ahhh… life is good when it is a clean life.

Some people treasure trash while others treasure cleanliness. Whatever the case may be as I’ve heard many a time in my life, you can’t take what you have here with you when you die, but one thing I can take with me…my clean pure soul and that my friends, is good enough for me! 

Matt. 6: 19-20 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”