"Time for the Shredder"

“Time for the Shredder”

 

A few months back I put copies of my completed 2015 tax return in the box where I store my records. I noticed the carton was getting pretty full so I checked the dates and found they went back to 2003 (six years beyond the time the IRS requires that they be kept). So I spent part of an afternoon feeding the unneeded papers into the shredder (I had to stop a couple of times to keep it from overheating). I learned from this to get rid of unnecessary materials year by year rather than letting them pile up indefinitely.

When my brother Dave and I were preparing our mother’s house for sale we found many years of tax and other financial documents our father had saved which met with the same fate as did my outdated records. Likewise when Karen and I, along with her sister Sandy and her husband Rick, cleared out her mother’s apartment. The mountains of fragments in all three cases testify to the benefits of keeping current with what’s needed and what’s not.

Many of us have allowed past humiliations, embarrassments, hurts, and struggles (to name a few) to build up in our lives. These memories clutter our minds and can hinder us from progress by binding us to fear of failure. Certainly we can learn from our experiences in life, both good and bad, but the Apostle Paul calls on us to “… (forget) what’s behind” (that is, don’t dwell on the defeats of the past) “and (strain) toward what is ahead….” (Philippians 3:13). Once we’ve confessed and repented of our sins (“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”—Proverbs 28:13) God removes them “…as far as the east is from the west….” (Psalm 103:12). In other words, they’ll never meet us again.

If we’re bogged down with “junk” from the past it’s time to get out the shredder. Why not write down “…everything that hinders….” (Hebrews 12:1) and as a symbolic act of accepting God’s forgiveness grind them up. I’ve done so—and it’s freeing because of what Jesus has done (“…If the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.”—John 8:36). And let’s do so as soon as we become aware of them to keep them from piling up so we can “…run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1).

 

Blessings!

Jim McMillan