Spring Cleaning Your Headspace

I've never really cared for wintertime. Shortly after welcoming a white Christmas, winter starts to feel interminable to me. It's cold and grey and everything looks dreary... or dead.

Plus, I'm a lousy skier.

So naturally I'm one of those people that starts anticipating springtime on January 2.

Give me sunshine, birdsongs, flowers...

Even the dandelions make me happy this time of year.

The only thing about spring that I don't really care for is the unspoken expectation of...

Deep cleaning.

Spring cleaning is a whole thing. And unlike flower shopping and sunbathing and bird watching, it's not fun.

Which explains why 'dirt' is a four-letter word. (And 'dust' too.)

Somehow the start of this season seems to quietly signal it's time to...

Scour/scrub/rinse/repeat.

Clean the windows/oven/frig/garage, clear the field (or overfilled closet as the case may be). Oh joy.

My dad used to say, "Life is a bowl of chores."

(Wise guy.)

Honestly it's the clutter I struggle most with... Deciding what to keep, what to donate or toss. And then - even harder - resisting the urge to immediately acquire more. (Order on the app. Free shipping.)

It's no different with media consumption.

We subscribe to more streaming services, follow more accounts, add more music/movies/shows to our online libraries... and consume more and more and more content.

The average American drinks from the firehose of online content nearly 8 hours per day. (And most experts agree, we're not just "accessing." We're addicted. So there's that.)

Study after study shows that excessive screen time/overconsumption of media has harmful effects on both physical and mental health.

And now... finally... a few brave voices are issuing those warnings, loud and clear.

Thank God.

It doesn't take a Harvard research study to figure out why.

Because most of what we're consuming is not this...

Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. ~ Philippians 4:8 (TLB)

Do me (and hopefully, yourself) a favor and grab your phone. Open up your browser and take a quick look at the open tabs/websites you've used in the last day or so. Or open your social media app(s) and scroll through the accounts you're following.

Now read that verse again.

How much of what you're consuming is true?

Good?

Right?

Pure?

Lovely?

(Wild guess... not much.)

Maybe we should all do some spring cleaning here, now. A content cleanse. An account purge.

Clear out some of the clutter in our minds.

Power-wash some of the muck from our headspace.

Start here:

Anything that drags you into the pit of comparison. The black hole of envy/insecurity/stress/strife. (Or sometimes, utter despair.)

Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy... ~ James 4:1-5a (GNT)

Be a friend to God and yourself.

Take a break from doomscrolling/show-bingeing/brainrotting/time-wasting. Take back your brain... and a whole lot of time.

Just.

Do.

It.

I doubt you'll regret it.

Delete an app or two. Silence notifications. Unfollow a few accounts (or a few dozen). Turn off the TV... and go for a walk/read a book/bake a cake.

Give it a whirl... and see how you feel.

There's a reason people say: Less is more. There's a reason simplicity is sweet. There's a reason peace and rest seem to find us in wide open (not cramped/cluttered) spaces.

When we ask God to help us clean up/clear out/cut back, he refreshes us from the inside out.

The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack.

He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters.

He refreshes and restores my life... ~ Psalm 23:1-3a (AMPC)

Again and again.

Amen.