Spring Cleaning

Very few people realize that the old idea of a “Spring Cleaning” was part of the original Lenten observance. Cleaning out one’s house was symbolically associated with cleaning out one’s life of all the unnecessary clutter that had accumulated during the past year. This old notion still has excellent applications for all of us today.

Spring is a good time to clean out the clutter in our lives. That means disposing of useless papers and unused stuff but also throwing away grudges, both old and new.

The prevalence and durability of grudges proves Maya Angelou’s observation that people don’t always remember what you said or did, but they do remember how you made them feel.

Grudges are nothing more than toxic memories of how someone made us feel.

But Confucius taught that “To be wronged is nothing unless we continue to remember it.” So why do so many of us choose to consciously preserve and revisit toxic feelings that detract from our happiness?

Perhaps we fool ourselves into thinking we can inflict some sort of pain on the person who wronged us. In fact, holding on to a grudge is like holding on to a hot stone. It doesn’t hurt the stone or the person who gave it to us; it only hurts the one holding it. Carrying a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.

It doesn’t matter how justified the bitter feelings are or how right we are. Holding on to a grievance turns pain into suffering. In a peculiar way it empowers the wrongdoer to hurt us again and again.

So give yourself a great gift. Muster the good sense and strength to root out and release deep – seated and long – held resentments.

If you can, forgive and forget. But all that’s really necessary is a firm decision to let go of your grudges so you can move forward and free yourself of the chains of resentment.

Let’s make our spring cleaning complete this year. Let’s clean out our house and our heart!

Tomorrow Begins With Today’s Dreams!

Charles B Saulsbery II, PhD

Pastoral & Community Liaison

Dr. Stan, said in his message a few weeks back, "Forgiveness is the air (or oxygen) of the kingdom of God. It's what we must constantly breath in and out." Let's get some cleaning done! For ourselves, for our King and his kingdom. Amen.