This month I embarked on what I have affectionately dubbed The Purging Project. It is an attempt to clear my life of all the unnecessary detritus that I have allowed to accumulate over the past dozen years. I got rid of some of it last summer when we moved, but I shamefacedly confess that I schlepped a whole lot of it to my new house with me.
One of my rules for this project is that I have to touch every single item before I decide what to do with it. I have to hold it in my hands and look at it. Only then can I decide whether to keep it or discard it.
In the past two weeks I have shed six bags of clothes and shoes, given away 500 books and magazines, and recycled or shredded six feet of paper—statements for credit cards I no longer have, reams of notes from classes or seminars that I have never looked at since I first wrote them, instruction manuals for every conceivable appliance, including a few we don’t own.
Why have I hung on to this stuff?
If you want to know why (and how this relates to the love of God), you’ll have to head over to Grace Table, where I got to hang out for a bit this week. Run by my dear friend Kris Camealy, it’s one of the most beautiful places on the web. Even if you don’t care why I hung on to all that stuff, you should still take a seat at the Grace Table for awhile. It’s lovely.
