My garage is an absolute mess right now and, honestly, I don’t want to deal with it. There is so much junk that finding a place for everything to fit seems overwhelming.
Like my garage, we humans constantly accumulate junk in our lives. Junk like grief, depression, aimlessness, shame are constantly threatening to fill up our heart and weigh us down. It can weigh us down so much that finding a place to deal with the junk can seem hopeless and overwhelming.
If we ignore the mess by making ourselves really busy, indulging in vices, or blaming others it only gets worse. Suppressing it with medical drugs might give a temporary reprieve, but it will never offer true and lasting healing. “Self-help” is a joke and lying to ourselves about how bad the junk is (i.e. the power of positive thinking) just masks the issue, disguising it as something else, and fails to address the root cause of the struggles we face. Family, friends and counselors can console and offer advice, but in and of themselves they are all powerless to remove the junk from our lives.
But praise God, there is a place you and I CAN put all our junk. There is a place all our grief, depression, aimlessness, sin and shame can be dealt with. That place is Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:26-28 Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” In light of all the weights and sin that so easily ensnare us, Hebrews 12:2 tells us to “Look to Jesus.” When we do we find the perfect place to deal with our problems. We find a Savior who is strong enough to deal with all our junk and burdens and who gives us the true rest and healing we need.
Today, I challenge you to stop looking for healing in all the false wisdom and hope of the world and start looking to Jesus – the only true source of wisdom and hope. I encourage you to get on your knees, confess and repent of any sin in your life and express your need to Christ, putting all your junk in the only place that it actually fits – in the loving, more than capable arms of Jesus Christ, the only one who can deal with it and give you true and lasting rest.