Closet Cleaning and Life’s Cockroaches

I imagine how hard it must be for my mom to have to take care of four boys in the family. There’s always dirty laundry scattered across the house. The beds are not made. Farting contests are not unusual. And the boys seem to still need “target training”, as evidenced by wet toilet seats.

My two brothers, my dad, and I might as well be the worst nightmare for a woman who pays particular attention to cleanliness.

Take for example the cockroach in our closet. My brother James and I share a room where the closet interiors resemble post-“Ondoy” Manila. And just recently one of the biggest cockroaches I’ve ever seen in my life has decided to make it its home. We could’t manage to kill the cockroach because it was hard to catch. It hid beneath piles of bags and things that made up the bulk of the mess in our lovely closet. For weeks we had to be careful not to open the closet, pick up a shirt and find the cockroach crawling on the hanger.

There was only one way to get rid of the cockroach: clean the whole closet, get rid of every trash, and deal with the heap of unsorted “stuff” that made up the cockroach’s mansion. That was the only way to force that cockroach out. The problem was none of us wanted to go through all that work.

In life, I have other “cockroaches” I don’t want to deal with because doing so would require me to do a general cleaning of my personal closets. I will have to sort out heaps of stuff I’ve paid no attention to in years. I will have to throw away a few things, take out bits and pieces of useless trash. And I will have to put things (back) in their proper order. It’s a ton of work. But unless I leave the cockroaches with no place left to hide, I know I’ll never get rid of them.

That may mean dropping a bad habit, or reevaluating the way I manage my time. Maybe that’s asking for forgiveness, or giving it. It could be quitting on “useless trash”—like laziness, crude language or even excessive media consumption.

Nobody said cleaning was easy. But just like how my mom reminds us everyday, there’s no other way to it than just by doing it—so do it.

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Our closet story happened a few months ago. And one December night, with the help of our friend Fred, my brother and I decided to get rid of the cockroach once and for all. One by one, we took out the clothes in the closet. We took out the bags and patted each one. We threw away junk and sprayed bug spray on every square inch of the closet. Eventually, the cockroach had no choice but to show itself out in the open.

Man, did that cockroach get the beating of a lifetime.

It was hard work, but it was worth it. Sure, the other half of the work meant putting back inside all that was clean and closet-worthy, but at least now we know there was nothing we put in there that a cockroach could feed on or make itself a house in. Likewise, sin and other life cockroaches will continue to chew their way in our life unless we starve them and leave them with no places to hide.

So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
(James 1:21 The Message)

So start opening up your life closets, friends. Start with the Spring cleaning. That’s something not only every mother will be proud about, but something even our Heavenly Father will find delight in.

 

This post was originally published on April 7, 2010.