To Purge

To purge- to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify; to clear away or wipe out; empty; to cause evacuation.

2 Chronicles 34:8 (KJV) “Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.”

Purging can be a very freeing experience. There are many ways that we can purge. In May our family had an extreme purging experience.

I have moved more times than my daughter’s age (she is 32). When I think that we lived 11 years in our last house, it’s amazing to think I moved that many times in my fifty years. During each move we always experience some purging of “things”. It’s amazing how much stuff (or junk, as my husband calls it) we accumulate over the years. After each move we purge and then we seem to acquire more stuff until the next move and we start the process all over again. For me this last move in May was different than any other. For several years I had been so overwhelmed in our house. It was a mixture of too big for me, yet too small for two families (my husband, my daughter, her family and I) along with 4 dogs, 2 cats, 3 birds and a snake. Yes people that’s – 5 people and 10 “animals”. Don’t get me wrong, we had a very clean and beautiful house. It’s just that I felt overwhelmed and even guilty because everyone else had to do all the work. For some that might feel great and to an extent it did but my daughter had the task of caring for the house, the family, and me. Her health is not the best either and I could see it was taking its toll on her as well. So we all decided to move into two apartments that are close to each other. To do so, we had to do a great deal of purging. Knowing that we were going from an 1800 sq. ft. house with two car garage (full of junk) and an attic (full of junk), to two apartments combined sq. footage about the same, with only two small storage units and very little closet space, we had to say goodbye to many things. So we had a big yard sale. What we didn’t sell we had the men of the church come over and take things to the church for their annual sale in October, and then take the rest to the dump. It was quite embarrassing; we had six pickup truck loads to the church and three loads to the dump! Oh, and the animals… we split the dogs and cats and purged the birds and snake. Don’t worry; we gave them to a nice home.

I can’t explain how freeing and lighter we feel now. My husband and I have our little 800 sq. ft. apartment that we are able to manage, and our daughter has their 1000 sq. ft. apartment that they can manage, yet we are still a family that continues to eat dinner together every night along with our weekly family nights. Heather can still come over to assist me, Travis comes over to talk, play a game, or watch TV. We are together, yet separate too.

Yes, purging can be very cleansing in so many ways. It can be a healthy experience on a family as well. And all the things we purged – I don’t miss a bit! Now if I could just purge all the excess poundage I have accumulated over the years…

Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; ever will I forsake you."