I realized that in speaking about moving day in my last post, I might have provoked a certain amount of angst in some of you. It created angst in me, especially when I began to consider all the work moving entailed. It wasn’t so much the boxes or furniture to be relocated to a new home, it was the cleaning out that needed to happen before one could actually take possession of a new residence.

When my wife and I left Anaheim to move to the northern San Joaquin Valley, we discovered that there was so much accumulation of stuff that it would be difficult to move it all. It called for some sort of cleansing to go on, a detachment from the things associated with the old so that the new could be fully embraced. So for days before the actual move we began to go through the closets and drawers throwing the treasures of impulse and indulgence away. It was a cleansing necessary to the move and so we endeavored to give it our best efforts. Of course, I decided to give oversight from afar, since I was in another state, sharing a song and a message with people of that place. My wife was the onsite manager, and she has a reputation in our family as both radical and ruthless when it comes to disposing of “the accumulation of stuff”. But the cleansing was essential if we were going to move forward with an unfettered ease.

I think for many of us this sort of cleansing and detachment seems too radical and difficult to undertake. Yet in the spiritual life it seems essential to the process of transformation. When Joshua stood on the banks of the Jordan, having set up camp with the Israelites before their crossing, he instructed the people in preparation for their move. He said this in Joshua 3:5 “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you”. Joshua, in essence, told them to clean their spiritual house, to let go of those things that were not of God that they might receive the things glorifying to God. For Israel to be further transformed their old life would have to be left behind. Each day as I awaken Jesus calls me to renounce my old life and daily take up my cross and follow Him. It is a call to consecration.

This kind of consecration calls for a “soul awareness”, an inner life perception that enables one to honestly recognize and appraise the roots of desire, attitude and motivation. It calls for the exposure of the inner world of thoughts and feelings that we often mask in the outer world in order to manage other’s perceptions of us. In the Ignatian “Prayer of Examine”, one is called to recognize, acknowledge and renounce all those things exposed by the Holy Spirit as not of God and to turn away from those things to face God’s loving and purifying gaze. This kind of honest evaluation of the condition of our souls is the very thing Jesus called for when he called His disciples to pay attention to both the roots and fruit of a tree. Good roots produce good fruit, while bad roots produce bad fruit. The things underneath the soil matter to the health and productivity of the tree, so pay attention to what lies beneath.

As you consider this day, what might be the roots beneath the soil to which Jesus is calling you to attend? As Joshua called the people to “consecrate” themselves, what might you need to let go of regarding your old life to better receive the new life God has for you? It may be as simple as taking the first step of opening the closet door in your heart so that the Holy Spirit can point out what needs to be eliminated. It often takes greater strength to open our hands and let go than it does to hold on to what we have grown accustomed to in our lives. May the Lord give you that strength to acknowledge and let go of those things that keep you from following and loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.