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July 13. Calgon, Take It Away.
Taking something away leaves space to fill up.
I once heard that great companies and great entrepreneurs look to take something away that makes their customers better. I can see some validity to that statement, can you? They take something away and get paid for doing it because it takes resources to haul it off.
Some take away physical items like rubbish and refuse, others take emotions or obstacles, and others might take away old results. What is it that you would get rid of today? If there was no restriction to what you could remove, what would you remove? It might be frustration, fear, anxiety, pain, suffering, inefficiency, delays, or even complacency.
What would it be worth to have any of these items taken away from you today? When you identify one of these valuable items to be removed you have identified a limit. If it has a value if it were to be removed, then we could certainly consider hiring someone to do just that.
What is it that your company takes away for your customers? Have you ever looked at it from that perspective? Maybe your team can come up with better services and products when looking through this lens. It is not the only lens to look through, but it just might be a powerful one.
What is the first thing that you can do in the next seven days about taking something away to benefit others?
As brothers and sisters in Christ we are in relationship with each other and our Lord. Each of us are taking a journey and hopefully making progress on our own path. But we stray from the path. We get distracted, we sin, and as we do, we begin to walk further from Christ.
We can be of value to one another by helping one another keep our focus on Christ. What is it that you would stop doing to draw closer to God? Is there a loving believer that you could trust to help you take it away, to help hold you accountable and remove the limit? If you ask, they just might be willing to help.
It is appropriate though that we challenge ourselves first, not focus on taking stuff from others. What we think others might need to have taken away just absolutely might not be in God’s plan. Remember what King David thought he should do?
“When David was settled in his palace, he summoned Nathan the prophet. “Look,” David said, “I am living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant is out there under a tent!”” 1 Chronicles 17:1 NLT. Was he taking away something from God that God did not need?
There might have been value there if that was the case. Did David think that God was homeless, that a tent was not a good enough home for the Ark, and it needed a home? It might have been that David was feeling guilty about all that he had been blessed with.
I do not think we will ever know but I am confident that I do not need to take away anything from God. God has it figured out, certainly in relation to me anyhow. God might just want us to take away whatever is keeping ourselves from him. Among the descriptors of our God, we could use trash collector.
Let us trust the ultimate refuse service, God, and allow him to assist us in taking away our barriers. What is keeping you from God this week? What is the first thing that you can do about it in the next seven days?
Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for so many blessings. We have so much and allow much of what we do have to get in the way of our relationship with one another. Help us to remove the clutter, both the emotional and the physical.
May we begin to find you behind some clutter of the past as we take it away. May we help to bring others closer when they ask us for help in removing their clutter. Let us praise, worship and be in joyful prayer when the clutter is removed. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen,
