The king replied to him, “Do as he has said, strike him down and bury him, and thus take away from me and from my father’s house the guilt for the blood that Joab shed without cause.” 1 Kings 2:31
Last December, my wife and I moved into our new home, putting everything in its place. For some reason, I specifically remember folding and organizing my sweatshirts on their designated shelves. I appreciated how tidy it looked but I also remember thinking, This isn’t going to last. Sweatshirts are one of those articles of clothing I’ll put on for an hour in the morning and then throw back on my shelves to be worn again. So, it didn’t take long for my neatly folded sweatshirt shelves to become piles of sweatshirts. It didn’t happen all at once, but with each sweatshirt worn and thrown back, it gradually descended into chaos. I liked the organization I had previously, but I know that to get back there, I’d have to clean house, pulling out all those sweatshirts and starting over. Then, to keep it that way, I’d have to change my behavior, carefully folding every sweatshirt, every time. So far, this is not a project I’ve had the motivation to tackle. So, much to my wife’s chagrin, my sweatshirt shelves remain disheveled.
This is a microcosm of my life. Though my life needs discipline and structure, I’m not naturally prone to organization. I once enjoyed the chaos of the Emergency Room Physician’s life, but in recovery, I’ve had to admit that I require structure. I need to get up every day to ready my Bible, pointing my life at God. I need to go to my weekly recovery meeting. I need to daily log how much I eat. If I don’t discipline myself to do these things, I just naturally drift towards disorganization and the chaos of an undisciplined life. Even eleven years after the disaster of my addiction, I’m still prone to letting things slide, allowing my life to drift towards disorder. Occasionally then, I must clean house, pulling everything off the shelves so that I can get back to order and discipline.
Today’s passage describes how Solomon had to clean house after his father passed on the throne of Israel to him. There were several things that David had let slide, allowing his kingdom to devolve into disorder. Now, it was up to Solomon to put things back in order. This required some painful decisions, but for the good of the kingdom, it had to be done.
The little things matter. If I allow a small sin to exist in my life, it tends to grow, metastasizing like a cancer. So, if I enjoy the new life, I must regularly search for those little threats that I’m prone to tolerate. Then, when I recognize them, I must clean house. If I don’t want my life to descend into the chaos of my sweatshirt shelves, I must commit to daily keeping it clean.