It’s ingrained in me.  My mom did it.  My grandma did it. Our dining table always has a seasonal centerpiece. In the spring and summer, it might include the beautiful, fresh flowers of the season.  In fall it will include apples and other fruits of harvest.  In winter, is always a something to draw our attention to the center of the table. 

I was also taught to declutter everything that can easily accumulate on our dinner table during the work week.  The table becomes a drop zone of papers and backpacks!  The clutter piles up quickly with bills that must be paid, ads telling us what we must buy, notices of things we must do, along with kids’ school papers to sign and the good intentioned coupons we might use. It can become so cluttered as a makeshift filing system that there is no more room to eat.  So, instead of sitting down together for a meal; we grab a snack and sit on the couch.  If the table becomes too cluttered, the centerpiece becomes less noticeable.  The people become more detached from each other.  The trash on the table blocks the beauty of the centerpiece and discourages us to eat there.

Clutter is depressing and makes me sad until I remove it.

Our lives can become so cluttered with activities, good and bad, that the busyness can block our view of the Center of Life itself, namely Jesus.  Get a grip!  Go for a cleansing of the clutter from The Center who will declutter our lives with His simplicity of love, mercy, and grace and set us free.  Come to The Table of Jesus who wants to be the Center of all we think, say, and do.  Our work is to believe and follow the Center of our lives with every fiber of our being.

Hebrews 3, The Message

The Centerpiece of All We Believe

^1-6 So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do. Moses was also faithful, but Jesus gets far more honor. A builder is more valuable than a building any day. Every house has a builder, but the Builder behind them all is God. Moses did a good job in God’s house, but it was all servant work, getting things ready for what was to come. Christ as Son is in charge of the house.

^6-11 Now, if we can only keep a firm grip on this bold confidence, we’re the house! That’s why the Holy Spirit says,

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,”
    that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years,
    your ancestors refused to let me do it my way;
    over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked!
    I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God;
    they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed,
    “They’ll never get where they’re going,
    never be able to sit down and rest.”

^12-14 So watch your step, friends. Make sure there’s no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. For as long as God’s still calling it Today, keep each other on your toes so sin doesn’t slow down your reflexes. If we can only keep our grip on the sure thing we started out with, we’re in this with Christ for the long haul.

These words keep ringing in our ears:

Today, please listen;
    don’t turn a deaf ear as in the bitter uprising.

^15-19 For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

• Get a grip on our believing faith in Jesus as the Center of our lives.
• Listen to Him.  Please listen and obey from a deep love for the One who died and rose again for us.
• Remove all that can trip us up and block our view of God, asking in the Name of Jesus.
• Keep a grip on a sure thing—Jesus at the Center!
• Avoid all that distracts, deceives, and deconstructs our faith in God through Jesus.
• Help each other stay focused on The Center.
• “We’re in this with Christ for the long haul!”

Dear Lord,

Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, declutter our souls of all that does not belong, and restore the joy and peace of your salvation at work within us.  Be the Center of our lives.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen