Does it spark joy?

from the fabulous site, one kings lane

I have spent much of the last month de-cluttering my house. January always seems like a good time to do this. Clean out the old while welcoming the new year. In the midst of my de-cluttering, I stumbled upon a book. The Life-ChangingMagic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo has become a best seller, proving that we are in constant search for the best way to clean up our lives.

The premise of the book can be boiled down to one simple question: Does it spark joy? In other words, do the items in your home—in your closet, on your shelves, in your cabinets—make you happy? If not, get rid of them to make more room for the things that do. It seemed like a weird question at first when sorting through shirts and pairs of pants in my closet, but then I began to see how much sense the question made. Why should I keep in my life if it doesn’t make me happy?

There are so many things that we hang on to that don’t make us happy. When it comes to de-cluttering, we have to examine our internal lives as well as the external. Clutter doesn’t just fill our closets and cabinets but our hearts and minds as well. We clutter our lives with all sorts of junk that keeps us from being our best. Junk that makes us unhappy, keeping us from fully being whom God intends. Fasting is one way we can eliminate the bad to make way for the good. Fasting is a way that we can de-clutter our lives.

James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (NIV) Sometimes the clutter is blocking our way. We need to remove the clutter to make more room for God in our lives. Fasting is about repentance and simplicity. It’s about recognizing the junk that we have allowed to keep us from God and get rid of complexities of life that distract us. Choosing to fast is choosing to remove some clutter allowing us to step closer to God so he can step closer to us. De-cluttering can change your life, de-cluttering can change your heart.

Continued from a series of posts I am writing for my church.