Ever feel blocked? Yeah, me too. One of the best cures for a blocked soul starts with a clean sweep. 

Last week, on the blog, we talked about the way of simplicity and how it leads to freedom (click here to read it now). This week we’re going to do a deeper dive and get a little more practical about how we can help motivate the soul when we feel stuck and blocked.

I’m not sure that doing a big Spring cleaning is still a thing, but growing up it sure was. I wasn’t a big fan of the all-day family clean-up projects, so implementing them as an adult has been challenging. It not that I don’t think a big Spring cleaning isn’t important, it just hasn’t always been a priority. Oh, we get stuff done, but it looks more like an ongoing trickle effect rather than one giant push for the win. Maybe you can relate?

I would love to say that I’m super organized and have awesome systems, but I don’t. I have a love and hate battle over the balance of clutter and order. There’s the bigger issue at play though and that’s what we’re trying to get after today. 

Let’s be clear, things, in and of themselves, are not all bad, it’s the value and the place we give them in our lives. When our things begin to dictate our lives we’ve have actually exalted them to the high places of honor. God will not share the throne of our hearts with anything, so it should not come as a surprise when the soul feels disconnected and blocked because of our misappropriated things.

So, how do we get free from all the things, when the soul feels blocked? 

A great first step is a clean sweep. 

Dealing with the unspoken

We live in a culture obsessed with things. The more the better, right? If you have any doubt, do a random survey among your friends. Ask who pays for self-storage, uses the garage for extra storage, or has multiple sheds. There is no doubt in my mind that we all struggle at some level with unhealthy attachments to things.

Let me just be clear (and I’m preaching to myself here too), there is nothing in this world that can satisfy the soul. You and I were made by God, for God. We are complete when we live in communion with Him. True intimacy leaves no space to maintain idols because God will not share the throne with anyone or anything. Whether we like it or not, the truth of the matter is that a blocked soul is stuck because it’s out of alignment.  

A clean sweep can help the soul in profound ways to deal with the buildup of both physical and emotional things. What we’re talking about here isn’t just materialism, it’s the attitude of attachment. Entitlement has become more popular over the last decade as we evaluate this issue in our lives. And it’s hard, right? 

Here’s the thing, nothing is going to change without a ruthless evaluation of the state of the soul. You and I can affect change and make a huge difference in our communities by taking responsibility for ourselves. Finding alignment with the Father starts by making Him first in our lives. We practice keeping Him first by choosing disciplines like simplicity. Doing a clean sweep regularly helps maintain space and margin, and it helps us cut down the idols.

When enough is enough, it’s time for a clean sweep!

For weeks I’ve been looking around the house at all the stuff and feeling a build-up of irritation. When that starts to happen I intuitively know that it’s time for a clean sweep. If you are anything like me knowing you need to do it and actually doing it are two different things though, right?  Honestly, I do like cleaning and organizing once I get into it, because it can feel both satisfying and freeing. My issue is dealing with the emotions connected to it all.

Over the weekend I decided to tackle our dining room. I removed an oversized mirror from one wall, and a picture from another. Both pieces drove me nuts, every time I walked into the room. I’ll spare you the story of how they ended up there to begin with because it really doesn’t matter. My point is that I decided enough was enough and down they came.

I cannot tell you how great it feels when I walk into that space now, because it no longer feels cluttered. The oversized pieces always felt like they sucked up all the oxygen from the room. Admittedly, now it’s pretty empty, but I have plan for those spaces that will help create a sense of inspiration and life. For now, though, I’m enjoying blank spaces on the walls. That single action of removing an oversized mirror motivated my soul to attack other long avoided areas of collected clutter. 

Growing up, we had a junk drawer in the kitchen that my Mom referred to as the sin drawer. Well, over the years I’ve created multiple “sin drawers” filled with things that I just didn’t know how to deal with, both literally and spiritually. Taking the first step is always the hardest, but now I’m in. 

And so it begins…

Clean Sweep

The process of a clean sweep can be like an intentional act of the will, initiating a declaration of trust and surrender to the will of the LORD. The practice of simplicity helps to remind the soul that everything we need is satisfied by God—period. This is an important issue to keep right in our hearts because when we don’t we end up looking elsewhere for fulfillment. 

There may be more, but for today, I’ve got three specific and practical actions that can help in the pursuit of simplicity. The process of a clean sweep will need to hit all the layers of the soul, but the best place to start (in my experience) is with our physical things. Are you ready?

Let’s dig in…

Cultivating the art of letting go!

Cultivating the art of letting go begins with a ruthless purging of all things.

The attachment that we have to things can sometimes feel overwhelming, which can paralyze us into inactivity. But eventually, all the stuff gathers and takes over. Letting go may feel hard but making a clean sweep is a great step in practicing trust. 

Start by tackling something small and go into the process with the mindset of being ruthless. I always find that letting go of everything all at once, is just too hard, but small bite sized pieces are a little bit more manageable. 

Establish three categories: things to toss, things to keep, or things to give away. I hate our toss-away mentality, so passing things on to others who might need or want them is a great solution. That said, however, guard against pushing things on others.  We don’t want our things to become another person’s burdens—there’s a fine line.  

Make peace with the fact that there will be items that just need to be tossed. When I cleared out my dining room cabinets over the weekend, I found my first cell phone. The old flip phone is obsolete so it’s now gone!

Once you clear out those things, you will find that you have space and margin. It’s much easier to manage things well when you know what you have. The clearing of clutter creates physical space, which is excellent, but it also creates mental and emotional space too.   When you can see and think, you can better evaluate what you really need. 

Clean sweep begins by cultivating the art of letting go.

Radical Generosity

Once you move through a clean sweep by purging and letting go of the excess it’s time to peel back another layer and go deeper still.  It’s easy to toss what is tired and broken or give away things you no longer want, but what about the things you keep? Radical generosity seeks to manage the emotional attachments. 

When my husband and I were first married, there was a family in our church who had teens in our youth ministry. When ever they went away on vacation they handed me the keys to their second vehicle to use as much as I wanted or needed for the time they were away. It was a big deal, because it was useful and important to their daily lives, but they happily shared what they had to help make my life a little easier for a couple of weeks of the year. 

My Aunt often stripped the wall of a picture or pulled the scarf off from around her neck when someone admired it, just for the pleasure of sharing joy with generosity. Seriously! And when her life situation changed about a decade ago, she called me and offered to give me her large custom-made pine dining table, because she remembered how I loved it as much as she did. 

Radical generosity helps us clean sweep our attitudes and attachments so that we can keep God first. 

Limiting our choices

The third area of clean sweep takes us one step deeper still. Once we clear things out and adjust our attachments, we need to deal with our expectations and attitudes of entitlement.

We live in a culture with much excess, and with much excess, there is great waste. I don’t know about you, but that makes me sad. Part are the issue at play begins with our inner expectations of what we are entitled to. Here’s the thing, do we really need a hundred options?

We sure do like our options though, don’t we? I won’t lie, I like to have choices too, but the truth of the matter is that too many options can be a bad thing. Why? Because too many choices can lead us right back into bondage.

The emotional pressure of making a perfect choice, about the perfect thing, at the exact right time can literally make a person sick. Having a hundred options is not worth the cost of the anxiety. And, that’s what I tell myself when I’m tempted to pursue all the choices.

The practice of limiting choices draws from the Spirit-given fruit of self-control. Self-imposed limitations are an expression of free choice. You are just as free to say no as you are to say yes. 

It’s important to remember that, because sometimes we fall for the lies. Don’t listen to the enemy’s distorted ideas about how setting limits restricts your freedom. It doesn’t. Limitations are about honor, stewardship, and investment. 

When you remove the distractions you will find that you are free to be present. Limiting your choices frees you up to live and move and be.

Making and Keeping Space for Jesus.

Okay, so hopefully you are feeling motivated and ready to tackle your own clean sweep project! Here are a couple of extra things to keep close as you press in. A blocked soul is no joke, and I don’t for mean to imply that cleaning your closets out will solve the whole issue. The reality is, there may be many things you need to do to help the soul find rest, but a great first step is to clear and make space for the LORD. 

It’s hard to hear and see what God is saying and doing when we are surrounded by clutter, or worse still, collections of little idols. If you are struggling to connect with the LORD, start here and walk the process out.

Begin with prayer, walk it through in prayer, and when you’ve completed your first project, give thanks and praise the LORD for leading you through. Take time to reflect on the experience, the good memories that rise up, and the hard ones. This is also a time for inner healing and restoration as you release, renew, and restore both your physical things and the emotions connected to them.

And then comes the work of guarding those renewed and restored places of both the body and the soul. Follow up with your clean sweep by practicing this simple breath prayer. Place yourself in the presence of the LORD and pray in rhythm with your breathing. 

The LORD is my shepherd, I have everything I need.

Psalm 23:1

Lean in and enjoy the goodness of God as He leads you to clear and peaceful places. If you found this helpful, I invite you to sign up for my weekly devotional, The Grace Notes, which comes each Friday! Sign up below!