What is your "Sandy" story?

It's been a while since I've posted, but so much has gone on since then.  In the last two weeks we had Hurricane Sandy, lost power for about a week (my thoughts are with those who still have no power or worse),  gas rationing was put into effect in NJ, we had an earthquake right here in Ringwood (only a 2.2, but come on... really?!?), and then we got hit by a nor'easter named Athena.

Things have been crazy.  But things are finally starting to return to a state of normalcy.

One of the most important lessons that I learned over this week comes from our 26 year old refrigerator which has been on its last legs for a while now.

Amanda and I have always kept our fridge very well stocked.  When the power went out we kept the door shut and hoped that we would get power back quickly so nothing would rot.

Over the next few days Amanda and I spent very little time at home.  However the food continued to stay in the fridge.  Without the power it started to stink.  The meat, frozen strawberries, and frozen blueberries all began to thaw and the juices proceeded to drip down and out the back of the freezer.  The smell when Amanda and I returned from my parent's house was nauseating.

We called our landlord in and explained the situation.  "The fridge is still working, but not terribly well and quite frankly, we're not sure if that smell will ever go away."  Our landlord understood and told us that they would be buying a new refrigerator for us very shortly.  Since then we've cleaned up the fridge as best as we could and just last night, we restocked our fridge.

What really amazed me is that even after spending quite a bit of money restocking, our fridge is quite a bit leaner than it was prior to the power outage.

You are probably wondering, "Ok Tim, but what does this have to do with anything at all."  Here goes!

Our lives are like the refrigerator.  We fill our lives with so much stuff.  Some of the stuff is physical: TV's books, clothing, big houses, sometimes even food.  Other stuff is time related: football practices, choir rehearsals, overtime at work, prayer meetings, bible studies, nights out at the bar.

Whatever you fill your life with, I'd put money on it that you are overfilled.  Eventually whatever your energy source is, there will be a cut in power.  I hate to say it but even if you are seeking God as your energy source, we have the capacity to cut ourselves off from his power by sinning.  When we sin it is like building up a wall between us and God.  So again, I say, eventually whatever your energy source is, there will be a cut in power.  And when that power is out you need to be careful that you only have what you need in your fridge.  Because the rest will start to rot.

Like I said, after power was finally restored we needed to restock with all new food, but we have WAY less than we did before.  We only have what we need now.  Recently Amanda and I removed some activities from our life that we simply did not have time for any longer.  Why?  Because we have more room for our relationship.  We made more room for one of the essentials.

Cleaning the refrigerator also took a while.  Amanda scrubbed the inside clean and I worked on cleaning up the tray of foul smelling juice that leaked from the meat and fruit in the freezer.  Eventually the smell dissipated, but making the foulest clean is a time consuming job.  When Christ comes into our lives and we need to clean house (or fridge in this case) it takes time to clean up the mess.  Our fridge however is now clean.

Lastly, and this might be stretching the analogy to its maximum, we will be getting a new refrigerator.  Eventually, in the resurrection, God says that we will receive new bodies.  The promise of a perfect new refrigerator is pretty awesome, but the promise of a perfect new body free from blemish in the future sounds even better.

It might be sin, it might just be stuff to do, or it might just be stuff, but is there anything you need to clean out of your life right now?

Also, I'd love to hear some of your stories about the last two weeks with hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages, nor'easters, and whatever else has been going on.  What has God been teaching you through these trying times?  If you write up something good I might even use it as a guest post!  You can leave your thoughts in the comments or you can e-mail us at thedumontsatshiloh@gmail.com.