Expired Items

For the third day straight, I will probably not leave my house.  This is due to continued icing on the roads in the local area.  Stir-craziness has arrived!  Over the past few days, while stranded, I have straightened my pantry, labored to match up orphan socks, and re-organized the laundry room. Apparently, friends of mine have done similar things.  One of them, dear friends, posted on Facebook that they had found in their pantry a box of Jello with a "Use by..." date of 2004.  That box of gelatin has lived in four states and survived at least 3 household moves.

While I laughed my head off, I realized that, if I went through my own kitchen pantry with such scrutiny I'd also find some "expired items".

Our study of Hebrews continues with these verses from Hebrews 6.

10For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. 11But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, 12so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.

Also pertinent to this topic are these verses from Philippians 3:

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.

Expired Items --- if we are honest with ourselves we all have them.  Because of things that happened in our past, we tend to lug with us into the future things that have "expired", outlived their usefulness, and are weighing us down.

Last week I had a disappointment, which I won't share here.  It was not a crippling loss, but a loss nonetheless. Now, that situation is an "expired item".  I need to learn from it what God has for me, be grateful for the lesson, and then toss that Jello.  No need to drag it around with me any further.

Clarification: when I speak of "expired items", I'm not talking about huge, devastating life events. Those are things we need to work through by the grace of God and by hanging on Him for dear life. Those take time, often lots of time, to process and move on from, most certainly.  Some things are so major, they are with us all our lives.  Others, perhaps, later on, could become expired items, just not until God is finished with them in our lives.  As we move through them, we lean into Him and let Him bear those heavy burdens.

In today's crazy illustration, it was not grandma's heirloom pie safe the family moved across 4 states; it was a box of Jello, for goodness' sake!

But, see, these "little things" can add up over time, if we hang onto them beyond their expiration dates.  They then become distractions and unnecessary hindrances in our forward spiritual progress, to which we are exhorted in the two scripture passages for today.

Periodically, we all ought to "search our pantries" and when confronted by those expired items - - - chuck 'em - - - with eagerness, so that we may fulfill our hope until the end! (Heb. 6:11)