We are blessed to have a garage at our current residence. Said garage often devolves into a repository of stuff. I hesitate to use a more negative term such as junk, because some of it is actually useful, though it may be in the minority. Invariably, we will come to a point where we have had enough of looking at and stumbling around the mountains of mess and will engage in the unenviable task of cleaning the garage. Last weekend was one such occasion.
As I was sorting through all of the stuff, I began to wonder why we always let it get to this point? What were we thinking over the months as we placed all of these things around the space and why did we continue to endure the inconvenience rather than dealing with it? Several thoughts came to mind and I think they contain applicable thoughts for our everyday lives.
First, the piles of stuff in our garage represented a mangled mess of best intentions and unexecuted plans. A major contributor to the chaos were several bags and boxes of old clothing, toys that our children have outgrown, and a cornucopia of decorative items of questionable value that accumulated as we cleaned out other rooms and closets in the house. We stored them in the garage “temporarily” with every intention of having a garage sale sometime in the summer. We’ve lived in our current house for four summers, so it’s really anybody’s guess as to which summer, but that was the plan. Time continued to pass, other priorities continued to take precedence, and our best laid plans devolved into an unsightly mess and an incredible inconvenience.
As I carried the bags and boxes to my truck, I couldn’t help but think of how all of the things that sat in our garage could have been used by someone else. Our failure to act on our best intentions not only failed to provide us with any sort of benefit, but also denied any potential blessing for anyone else. All of that stuff that just sat on my garage floor is now in the hands of people who will make it useful once again. But, that’s only the case because we finally moved beyond the unrealized potential of best intentions and made the decision to act.
How often do we hold onto good ideas and best intentions at the expense of actual opportunities for meaningful action?
How often do we hold onto good ideas and best intentions at the expense of actual opportunities for meaningful action? I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know that in my own life, it’s more often than I’d care to admit. For a variety of reasons, we hold on to what we hope will be so tightly that it blinds us to what could be. Perhaps from time to time we need to take stock of where we are and what we are doing, and recalibrate our intentions and actions in order to better utilize the real world opportunities before us.
If I’m honest, though, part of the reason all of that stuff sat in the garage for so long is pure, unadulterated laziness. I simply didn’t want to expend the effort and energy to mitigate the mess. It was much easier just to ignore and avoid that particular space in our house. It sounds good in theory, but there inevitably comes a time when you need to get to the other side of the room. I can’t tell you how many times I had to circumnavigate the mountain of mess in order to access what I needed on the other side. One would think that in the name of true laziness I would at least create a path through it all in order to minimize the effort required of me. But, NO, I continued to huff and puff my way over it all until it was impassable.
Our inactivity causes us to expend as much or more energy than if we just acted and did what needed done in the first place.
Again, I have to wonder how often we fail to act in an attempt to make things easier on ourselves, but as a result make things harder. I know this happens early and often in many of our lives. We know what we should do, but fail to do it because it seems inconvenient, uncomfortable, or unprofitable. The great irony is that our failure to act actually increases the effort required to undo the mess rather than truly allowing us to avoid it. As it turns out, our inactivity causes us to expend as much or more energy than if we just acted and did what needed done in the first place. Whether it be fractured relationships, harmful habits, unhelpful attitudes, or unpleasant realities, ignoring the fact that they are there doesn’t make them disappear. It just forces us to work harder trying to hide, avoid, or carry them.
Every time we clean the garage, I find myself looking at the wide open, useful space and thinking, “I SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT MONTHS AGO!” Sure, it takes a little bit of effort and the process isn’t always altogether pleasant, but the results are always worth it. It makes us more effective and efficient and allows us to make the most of what we have. The same is true in our lives. Sometimes we just need to do a little cleaning and open up space so we can see and take advantage of the opportunities afforded us.
