Apparently, some thinkers at Whirlpool decided that it would be appropriate to prepare for the holiday season by cleaning out our refrigerators. They decided that November 15th is a good time to perform minor tasks that could help keep your appliance running strong.
Things like empty each shelf, throw away old, nasty leftovers, disinfect the interior, vacuum the coils, and clean underneath.
Seems reasonable enough to me.
But then I wondered, can the idea of tossing out old food increase your faith?
Not Your Typical Holiday
This one is a little bit different though, right? I feel assured that you aren’t going to tune into the Hallmark Channel and binge watch movies about appliance maintenance. And you’re not likely going to send anyone a Throw Out Your Leftovers greeting card.
While this holiday- wait, is it a holiday? Well, maybe not, but it is a thing and has been since 1999 when Whirlpool home economists made it so.
It really is a recognized day and National Clean Out Your Fridge Day actually has some positive and intelligent intent behind it. Maybe someone who participates avoided having to replace an expensive appliance right before Christmas.
Hey, it could happen!
Removing the Stale Meat and Potatoes
Well, hopefully you won’t lose a good slab of steak or a decent dish of potato salad in the nether regions of your fridge. But if you did, don’t worry there’s a lot worse that could happen.
Especially by keeping the door closed and the lights off in your spiritual life rather than in your refrigerator.
And giving maintenance to that part of your life is exactly how you increase your faith.
Makes me think about the old, stale methods of living out my faith that haven’t worked. Then I can start to see the parallel to this fridge day thing.
It’s like this. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut of doing the same ‘spiritual task’ over and over. I heard that Billy Graham reads 3 or 5 chapters in Psalms plus one chapter of Proverbs every day. So I thought since he’s a faith giant, his methods must be superior to whatever it is I’ve been doing.
What I discover is that when I try to follow someones example, sometimes it’s awesome. Sometimes it’s not. Often it’s great for a time, and then it gets stale as I grow stagnant and keep doing whatever it is just because it’s what I’m supposed to do.
And sometimes we need to remove the old, stale things from the ‘refrigerators’ of our spiritual lives and bring in something fresh.
Billy Graham’s method is a great way to connect with God in His word. Psalms teaches us how to communicate with and revere God, and Proverbs teaches us how to deal with the people in our lives.
And I’ll admit, his process of daily reading will increase your faith while helping you form the habit of being in the Bible every day.
And that is what it’s all about.
Trying New Life Recipes Will Increase Your Faith
If your daily habits of prayer and reading the Bible are spiritually nourishing to you right now then don’t change things. You’re already way ahead of many Christians.
And in case I’m sounding like I’ve perfected my daily nourishing routine with the Lord, I haven’t.
But if you’re like me and some weeks your daily reading and devotional time is a bit like old potatoes, by all means whip up something fresh.
It really is a bit like emptying the shelves and wiping things down and then restocking with fresh produce.
You could take 31 days and spend them in Proverbs. There’s one chapter for each day in a month so focusing on one each day and highlighting what stands out or writing down your favorite verses in a journal or notebook can be pretty filling.
Especially when you go back to that notebook later and focus on just the verses that spoke to you the loudest. Using a Bible journal is a great way to consume Bible verses.
You can do that very same process with the Gospels, Psalms, or the historical books from the Old Testament like Chronicles and Kings.
You could also check out my post on new life Bible verses and download that free printable, too. You might find it encouraging.
What I’m Cooking Up for You
Most people ask me to make them coffee because I’ve worked with the stuff since 2000, but I like to put good spiritual meat out for the people I love too.
To that end, I’ve been working on some things. In the coming year, I hope to have ready a 31 day journal through Proverbs and a verse-by-verse study on Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Longer term goals include a 48 Week Unlocking the Scriptures study.
Great post Gene. I remember hearing someone say that even the greatest spiritual habits will become routine at some point and that changing helps to keep things fresh. That stuck with me because I wondered why I would suddenly fall out of these habits at times and I think that routine nature could be part of it. I remember some martial arts person saying that you should copy other people and keep what works, and drop what doesn’t. I think that can be great about these spiritual fridge cleaning sessions. We keep what we’ve noticed works, and then clean out what doesn’t. Then take something else in.
“Copy other people and keep what works, and drop what doesn’t.”
Brilliant! That’s exactly what I need to remember when I hit those walls where I’m just going through the motions. Thanks for that nugget!
So fun and funky! Love it, and an interesting take on things. I just cleaned my fridge yesterday without even knowing about this ‘holiday’. I love Proverbs and try to read it everyday. Sometimes I like to look for a particular theme like one month I wrote out all the verses on discipline and diligence and stewardship. At the moment the theme of righteousness is standing out to me.
Hi Lizzy, I’m so glad you like this one! I really like your idea of looking for a particular theme each month. Since I’m writing on Proverbs I spend a lot of time there anyhow so I’m adopting your strategy 🙂 Thank you for taking a few moments to share your encouraging words!!