Cleaning out

I knew things were going to get a little sticky when I uncovered a CD for a printer that I don’t recall owning. Then there was the CD with a black Sharpie question mark label.

What in the world?

It was finals time so to speak. I had popped off the lid to my trusted plastic CD box. I had to deliver the goods just like a test at the end of the semester.

If you recall, my laptop computer crashed last week. After a stubborn time of trying to restore files, I finally moved on. (Did I say stubborn? I meant persistent, of course.)

The hard drive was re-formatted and it was time to re-install my programs. Although nobody accuses me of being well-organized (well, someone did once but that was before they saw my desk), I took some pride on my box as a shred of planning.

Every program CD went into that box. Well, except for the MS Office CD but that’s a whole ‘nother story that I can’t explain. It is somewhere in my office.

I am proud to say that there were no 5 ½ inch floppies in there. Using my system, that’s a miracle.

(Remind me to tell you the story of the Apple IIc that is stored in my son’s room.)

I found programs that won’t run on anything newer than Windows 98. I found programs for pre-schoolers. (Our youngest is 11.) I found a CD from our classical music days.

I haven’t had the time to check out the question-mark CD yet, although there’s the fleeting issue of why I’d save a CD inscribed that way. I’d like to blame this on the kids but they never open the box. I am the computer technician at our house. They just run the programs and don’t mess with the details.

Wonder where they learned that?

There’s a principle swirling in that plastic box. Crisis tends to reveal. What was once hidden becomes public in calamity. It became obvious that I don’t maintain my plastic box. I just toss things in there without seeing what is no longer relevant (or maybe never relevant.)

The past should have been worked through, not allowed to take up space. We grow, just as our computers change. Remember when Windows 95 was the big deal? Remember when our approach to problems was to eat or shop or party?

We need to keep our lives cleaned out. I’m wondering how many question-mark CDs I allow in my heart. And how many irrelevant CDs are taking up space I could be using.

A CD box isn’t the focus of my life, but my walk with the Lord had better not look like my box. I need to be in his presence daily, cleaning out the old and extraneous. I need my walk with my King to be free of garbage.

Paul put it so well:

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.

Phil 3:8

I’m cleaning out my box!