In this week’s edition of our weekly newsletter, Scott Gunn reflects on “fall cleaning” season as a time to discard old practices, and to welcome the new.
Dear friends in Christ,
The autumn is one of those times each year when people tend to do cleaning. It’s perhaps not as famous as “spring cleaning,” but this time of year brings cleanup, yard work, swapping out summer things for cool-weather things, and so on. The kind of cleaning where one simply removes dirt is less fun for me than the kind of cleaning where one is looking at objects and making decisions. Do I need this thing? Can I get rid of it? Will someone else want it? What is the responsible way to discard it? And then, at the end, I love the new space that opens up when we’ve discarded unused items.
There’s a spiritual aspect to all this. We don’t need to wait for Lent to look at our lives and our practices. Do I want to continue this practice? Should I stop it? Does it help me to be the person God wants me to be? When I manage to stop practices, it opens up time for new practices. I love that! Less time on Netflix means more time to write!
We’re having to do a bit of this at Forward Movement. A few weeks ago, we learned we have to find a new warehouse. Not very exciting stuff, but yet it affords great possibility. We’ve looked at every item in our catalog, as we decided whether we’d move things to the new place. It’s been hard work, but the kind of work that keeps us focused on our mission.
And, while I try to keep these weekly reflections from being too commercial, I must tell you that there’s a great benefit to you, dear reader, of our warehouse move. We have decided to put loads of things on sale, and you can get some never-before-seen discounts on many items. Please do have a look.
How can you use this time? What practices or objects is it time to let go of? What practices or objects is it time to take on?
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
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