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22m RELIgION InMaricopa.com
March 2012
Spring cleaning for the soul
BY REV. ERIC BROWN
Have you noticed we all tend to accumulate
bad habits? Good habits are
hard to accumulate, but bad habits
tend to pile up with no problem.
Let’s say you have a scoop of ice
cream one night before you go to bed.
You enjoy that ice cream and consider
it a harmless indulgence. And since it
was so nice, the next night, you do the
same. Maybe you do it the next night
and then again the next night.
Pretty soon, you have made a habit
of ice cream before bed. Before long,
you notice this habit accumulating on
your hips and see the habit when you
weigh yourself on the bathroom scale.
Bad habits sneak up on us and accumulate.
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I have a suggestion for you and your
bad habits: Spring cleaning for the soul.
I suggest you set aside 40 days to work
on eliminating a bad habit, or two.
You know what spring cleaning is,
right? Spring cleaning is when we clean
the closets, dust the shelves and give
the house a thorough scrubbing. Your
soul needs the same sort of cleaning.
Over the years, our souls get
burdened with dirty, messy, dusty
habits. We yell at the kids, say rude
words to our spouse, insist on going
first at the stop sign, treat the cashier
at the grocery store unkindly, eat the
wrong foods, smoke too much, drink
too much, and the like.
All these bad habits damage our
souls. Our souls are the interior, eternal
part of who we are, and they can be
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rev. eric brown of Journey united Methodist
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damaged, just as our exterior, physical
self gets damaged.
I suggest you set aside the month
of March and first 10 days of April for
spring soul-cleaning.
You do it by choosing a bad habit
(just one, or maybe two — no more)
and choosing to stop the bad habit for
this short time. Do not try to stop the
habit forever, just for 40 days.
If, for example, the problem is that
scoop of ice cream before bed, get all of
the ice cream out of the house and keep
it out of the house for 40 days. Or, if the
problem is yelling at the kids, involve
them in your soul cleaning. Ask them
to politely note when you have raised
your voice. Have them give you a ticket
or a yellow card (like in soccer) if you
are too loud. Try this for 40 days.
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You can do anything for just 40 days.
Forty days is a long time, but not too
long. Forty days is not forever. I suspect
that, after those first 40 days, you
will notice something amazing: You did
not need that bad habit after all.
After 40 days of not yelling, you find
other ways to communicate. After 40
days without ice cream, you find you do
not need the ice cream. The habit will
be broken and you will find other blessings,
too. Your relationships will be
better without the yelling. Your health
will be better without the ice cream.
This practice of giving up and the
length of time I suggest may sound
familiar to you. For 1,500 years or
so, the Christian church has invited
the faithful to celebrate the season of
Lent. Lent is 40 days devoted to prayer
and fasting, and is the 40 days before
Easter. This year, Easter is celebrated
on April 8.
During Lent, Christians give
something up (we call it “fasting”)
and spend time in introspection,
considering the bad habits that have
accumulated. For Christians, the
season of Lent began Feb. 22.
Even if you are not a Christian, or
if you are part of a Christian tradition
that does not celebrate Lent, try 40
days of habit breaking. Even non-
Christians accumulate bad habits,
sins, and wrong choices. Give it a try
— clean out your soul.
Eric Brown is pastor of Journey United
Methodist Church in Maricopa.
JourneyunitedMethodist.org
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