Empty Cabinets

My kitchen cabinets are being taken away this week and replaced next week. I’m also getting new sinks, new faucets and a new dishwasher. Walls will be painted. Countertops will be installed. All of these activities are in passive voice because I’m not doing any of them myself. I’m incapable. I simply don’t have the skills. And to be completely honest with you, I don’t even want to.

My 13-year-old son kept wondering why we were stacking boxes of our belongings in adjacent rooms for the days preceding the demolition. For some reason he didn’t understand that the cabinets were being removed completely. Not painted. Not refinished. Not just having doors replaced. The look on his face this week when he came home from school to a kitchen of exposed appliances and wires hanging out of walls of various colors was priceless.

Being who I am, I can’t help but notice some spiritual analogies in this process. Exhibit A: empty kitchen cabinets.

Before Vitali and the boys came to dismantle my cabinets I spent hours emptying them. That’s the part I could do. I can empty and sort and throw away some of the contents of the cabinets so that Vitali could rip them out and bring me something beautiful and solid and lasting and new. Does it sound spiritual yet?

Could that be what I need to do in my life as well?

Are there attitudes or behaviors in my life that I need to eliminate so God can come in and do what only He can do?

Here’s an example I think He’s been revealing to me lately. For years I have been asking God to help me tame my tongue. (My husband says I have a “tone”…) I want to speak words of life instead of words of death. (Proverbs 18:21) I want to build others up and not tear them down. (Ephesians 4:29) I know that words can spark a great fire that warms or destroys. (James 3) But then I came across this passage in Matthew.

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34)

Talk about a light bulb moment! It’s not just my tongue that needs taming – I have a heart problem! So my prayers changed from the moment of that realization. “Lord, what do I need to remove from my heart so my words will be different?” How can I empty my heart of what’s wicked so that God can replace it with His love, peace, joy, and compassion?

Spiritual analogy #1:

If I am a kitchen cabinet, I have to empty myself of myself so God can do something completely new and beautiful in my life.

This process is more than just confessing my sin.

It’s sober self-assessment.

It’s about brutal honesty before the One from whom nothing is hidden and everything is laid bare and uncovered. (Hebrews 4:13)

I can’t just say, “Lord, you know I’m a sinner and I’m going to try really hard to be better.” Too easy. Trying harder isn’t the goal and it’s not exactly the Scriptural outline for what God asks of us.

Here’s what Jesus said:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)

Deny myself. Take up my cross. Treat my life like it’s already over and belongs to someone else. Why? Because it does. We were bought at a price and we no longer live for ourselves but we live for the One who loves us and gave Himself up for us. (Galatians 2:20)

If God is going to come and make His home in us and transform us, we need to empty ourselves of the lies, the condemnation, righteous indignation, and the sinful behavior that gets in the way of us abiding with Jesus and allowing Him to do His kingdom work in us.

Even then it can still look pretty on the outside. But that’s a topic for another day.

• What needs to be emptied in your life so God can come in and do what only He can do?