Cleaning Up After the Elephants

We often get fixated on the elephant. The big pink elephants that stomp around the rooms of our lives. You know which ones I am talking about. It’s the ones that no one else likes to talk about. You step around it. You fix the things it breaks. Problem is pretty soon, you just can’t ignore it anymore.

So let’s say you get to that point. The rare occasion of acknowledging the elephant for what it is. What happens once we get the elephant out the door?

As you can imagine, elephants leave behind quite a mess. A path of destruction that trampled on everything you worked so hard to build… and don’t forget the piles of umm ….. stuff ….. it also left behind.

It’s not pretty.

You see it’s not just the elephant we have to worry about. We also have to take time to clean up after it’s gone. You might not be able to see the elephant anymore, but the scent lingers and will soon take over.

Take pornography addiction for example. One of the largest elephants Christians are cohabiting with and nearly always a silent struggle. And yet when we finally do find a safe place to confess and move forward from the behavior components of the addiction, we’re left with much still to clean up.

• Neglected relationships…
• Financial consequences…
• Integrity issues…
• Original core wounds…

These and more are left in the damaging path of addiction and we must make cleaning up a priority.

Otherwise, it’s likely another elephant will move in thinking it’s a cozy place to settle. Or the old one might just decide to come back home. Simply acknowledging the problem and getting it out the door is not enough.

Philippians 1:6 says, “ . . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Consider the good work God wants to do in you through your obedience in taking responsibility for the mess around you.

So roll up your sleeves, grab a shovel and get to work.