Coming to you from the Morning Star Mission sponsored studio. This is Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
It's Carl and crew, and we're helping you take your next step with Jesus. You know, I love this topic this week, because if there's anything that is equivalent to physical core training, remember when that was in style?
Uh, core training?
Yeah.
Um, I mean, not exactly like training.
No core training. The stomach muscles, how everything flows from the core. There was about a decade ago, like all the all the clips, all the training videos I saw was like, you've got to get the core. And I do believe that, by the way. Yeah. Remember that super day?
Absolutely. Yeah. Get your core. You gotta get the core.
Core training. Core training. Got to get that core.
Everything flows.
From the.
Core.
I must have been doing something else.
At the.
Gym. You were. You were raising.
Toddlers. You were raising toddlers. You had no time for core training.
That makes sense. They were training you. Thank you. Yeah, exactly.
No. Core training is a good principle. And it's. And it's important. And there's everything that you look at in life, there's people are trying to whittle down. What's the most important thing? If you look at a business, it's like, what's the most important thing? And when we're talking about the spiritual life, it's so easy to get on secondary issues and get hung up on them.
Give me an example of a secondary issue.
A secondary issue is I really believe this now. So hold on. So some of you are going to throw rocks at me and call me a heretic here. Um, I really think that the expression of spiritual gifts is secondary to cultivating in that core the engine room of our soul in the root system. Yeah. Your clear identity with who you are in Christ. Hear in his voice.
Feeling secure in him. I think going out and using that spiritual gift without having some of those basic things in the core in our belly, I think, uh, I think it runs the risk of not using it, that spiritual gift. Absolutely. Or if we use it, we don't use it as powerfully as we could. So I think it's got some huge, um, I think there's some big divots that we can get stuck into there. And I see this in my own life, I don't as a pastor. I don't have to look around, look at other people.
If I can tell you right now, the greatest days that I have are kicked off. When God has picked up the hood of my soul and gone tinkering around in there, and I've let him do it. That's the other thing. Am I going to let him work on the inside of me, and am I going to let him see what I need to see and talk to me about it? I mean, those are just it's just it's the hard work. But man, it's the good work. Because out of that, then I can come on here and I can go. All right. Few basics that I
learned from the Lord this morning. I got nothing to prove. Whoo! Hallelujah! Because if you got. If you come on here and you got something to prove. How does that go, Ali?
Uh, not. Well.
I'm not. I've got nothing to gain. I've got nothing to lose. And when I. When I get those anchored in my brain. And those are Dempster isms all the way, by the way. Greg Dempster, who was on with you guys Monday. Uh, when when we really get that sorted out in the core of our being, my goodness, the outflow of that is just tremendous. It's the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. It all starts in here, doesn't it, guys?
Starts in the core.
It's right here. It just begins right here. Um, and and one of those key things is how in the world do we pray? Because it's it's the thing of prayer. It's this intimacy. It's this listening to God that is so rich. And boy, have we got a treat coming up here, don't we?
Doctor Sam Storms he has quickly become one of our favorites. I mean, he every every time we talk to him, I learn a couple of new things. A couple, not just one.
Yeah.
And what's cool about him is that he's always learning stuff.
Yes.
That's what's really.
Cool.
And he goes deep into the word.
Yeah. Yeah. It's beautiful. Hang on. Buckle up. Get up. What?
Guys, swig of water.
Get a swig of water, Sam. Big storm coming up.
You can take him out of Alaska, but you can't take Alaska out of him. Carl is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
All this week, we're talking about lifting the hood, looking deep within. It's the unseen things that matter most. Ali is much more biblio centric on this one, and that she's taking us right back to the roots and the fruits metaphor that we find in Scripture.
Psalm one. Like a tree.
Yes. Love that. Those are my three favorite verses in all the Psalms I love it. Psalm one one through three. Check it out. Boom crew. But with us right now is a man who has done some deep diving on the whole issue of prayer. A lot of years of experience. I'm sure he's got some sacred scars to prove failings in this area. Doctor Sam Storms, what are you learning about prayer, my friend?
My goodness, that's a big question that deserves a big answer. I, in writing this book, I've learned so much because I was determined to get into what Scripture says about prayer, not our own personal conceptions or what we've been taught by those who didn't know what they were talking about. But to really examine how did Jesus pray and why? How did the Apostle Paul pray and why? And James
and others, as well as the Old Testament saints. And I think really, again, this is a book that, like so many of my books, where I'm doing it really for myself. Ultimately, I know that sounds selfish.
No.
It's good. But I realized I was not praying as I should. I wasn't praying consistently, passionately, expectantly, and I kind of preached to myself as I as I wrote each of these chapters in this book.
Doctor Sam Storms, our guest right now founder and president of Enjoying God Ministries, serves on the Council of the Gospel Coalition, featuring a book today, Understanding Prayer Biblical Foundations, and Practical Guidance for Seeking God. You mentioned some of the ways that we've been mis taught on prayer that can potentially hinder us in this area. Uh, highlight a few that you think are important.
Well, I think probably the most important one of all is that I find that people oftentimes because they have this big concept of God, which is good, that God is good, God is powerful. He's generous, compassionate, and merciful. That if I need something desperately, he'll give it to me whether or not I pray and ask for it. And I think that's a dangerous and arrogant assumption. We should never assume that God will grant us, apart from prayer, what he has promised us. He will give us only
in response to prayer. It's this sense of entitlement that we have, and I've heard people say, ah, you know, prayer is hard. I don't have time. God's good. If he if I really need this, he'll he'll give it to me, even if I don't ask. And I just think, you know, James four you have not because you ask not. And all through the scriptures, you know, we read these places where we are told what is available to us
from God if we will ask him. And I think that's the most dangerous thing that paralyzes people today, is they operate on this assumption. Well, that's God's business. That's that's just what God does. He's he's that good. So I'll devote myself to other things, knowing that he's going to provide me what I need anyway. And we go without so many blessings because we have failed to ask. And I think the Word of God just continually exhorts us, ask, seek, knock.
You know, your heavenly Father is good and gracious, but he has chosen. This is the mystery. He has chosen to accomplish his purposes in us and in the church. In response to our passionate requests of him.
You know, Sam, it's interesting because God's not punitive. And so somebody could listen to this go, okay, God's sure enough, we're getting confirmation here. God's God's playing his God card over me and waiting for me to open my mouth. He's not punitive. There's always a greater lesson in this. Why would God withhold blessings from the mute person that will not speak?
Because he has designed his relationships with us so that prayer magnifies him. It magnifies his grace, his abundant supply of good things. It magnifies and awakens us to our weakness and our desperate need of him. So, you know, oftentimes we think that somehow prayer is coercing God or that we can bully him or compel him. And of course, that is just almost blasphemous to think of those terms.
Sure.
But God has chosen and honestly, you know, if you ask me the question, why did he orchestrate his universe and his relationship to his people in this way? I think that's about the only answer we can give, because in some mysterious manner, it brings the greatest honor and praise to him when he is seen as generous and abounding in good things. When his children come to him in humility and ask for it. Uh, let me give
you just a quick example of this. We read in Isaiah 30, verse 18, therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. And then it says at the sound of your cry, as soon as he hears it, he answers you. And I read that, and I said, Lord, why are you waiting to be gracious to me? I don't I don't get it. It says he will surely be gracious to you when you cry to him in prayer, and as soon as he hears it, he answers you.
So it's that statement where he exalts himself to show mercy to us. And I don't know why God orchestrated it that way. He's infinitely wise. But I think if we really probe deeply, it's because our weakness, our need, our dependency on him, magnifies his abundant grace and supply for all things that are necessary to grow in godliness. And God says, if you want that, I'm waiting for you to cry out to me. Come to me and ask, and I will do it.
Doctor Sam storms our guest right now. The question I know many people will have right now is. But I did ask for this, for this person to be healed for this area of my life. And I didn't get the answer. I asked and God said no. Or he said nothing at all. How do we reconcile the two realities that yes, we must ask for what we need for God? But there are times that when we do ask, we certainly feel like God didn't give it to me. God. God didn't provide here.
Boy, that's that's a penetrating question that people are often upset by it and they're befuddled. And I think there are many answers to that. First of all, there are reasons why God chooses not to grant us what we want. I mean, can you imagine a father who grants his six year old son a shotgun on Christmas morning? He knows that the that the gift that the son desperately wants could do damage to him and others. God knows what is best for us. He knows the timing is
best for us. Sometimes it's not so much that God says no, but God says wait. And sometimes, instead of the answer that we want, he says, I've got something even better for you. And in other instances, I just I have a default. I think most Christians do. Romans 828 God causes all things to work together for good to those that love him and are called according to
his purpose. So I would say, all things being equal, if you do not receive the answer to the request that you made, it is because God has something even better for you. Even the issue of healing, if somebody we pray for remains in their sickness, God is using that to draw them into greater conformity to Christ, to give them an opportunity to depend on him in the midst of heartache and pain. So everything that God grants to us or withholds from us is designed to conform
us to the image of Jesus. So I just say to people, first of all, don't stop asking. You know, ask God to refine your prayers. I mean, as an author, I know what it's like when I write something. And then my editor comes back, marking it all up in red, and then I have to go back and rewrite it and rephrase it. Sometimes our prayers are so insipid and so selfish that God waits and seems to say no, to give us an opportunity to go back and say, wait, wait just a minute. Did I really want God to
do that or not? And then finally, I think we have to rest on the fact that God's wisdom is greater than ours. God knows what is best for me. I don't. I think I know what's best for me. God says no. I know what is best for you. And in this particular case, it's by asking you to wait, to continue to pray. And it might even be a no. I mean, like Paul's request that God remove the thorn in the flesh. Finally, God says, no, Paul, because I want my grace to be manifested through your weakness.
You know, Sam, I've got a broken heart for a couple hundred folks that I've met in the last 5 to 10 years who have wayward kids, and they've prayed and they've begged God, and they've done it earnestly. What's going on there? What's happening there? And what can you give, based on your study to a person that's just there? And, you know, so many of those folks to Sam.
Sure. Yeah. That is a heartbreaking situation. That's that's not, you know, like a situation where you say, Lord, I would like a promotion at work and you don't get it right because you are so emotionally tied up with the welfare of your kids. You know, I often think of Saint Augustine. Often called Augustine, who lived a horribly immoral life into every kind of philosophy. And sexual immorality.
And his mother, Monica, prayed every day for him. And she finally went to Ambrose, who was the bishop of the area where they lived. And she poured her heart out. And Ambrose's response was, it isn't possible for the child of those tears not to believe. And the point was, God sees your tears. He knows your heart. Cling to him.
Continue to pour out your intercession for them. Pray that God would turn their life inside out, and that they would find in a moment of desperation, that the only place they can turn is to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's really we say, well, that's all we can do. Well, that's a whole lot. It really is.
We've thrown you some curveballs here. Theologically, I want to hit another tough one. Does prayer change God's mind.
No. Here's what God's mind does. God's mind orchestrates the world and our relationship with him in it by suspending his blessings on our asking for them. So things that God has decreed from eternity past, let's say, for example, the second coming of Jesus or his bodily resurrection. No amount of prayer is going to change God's determination to raise Jesus from the dead and enable His Son to return to consummate his kingdom. So certain things are immutable
and unchangeable. But basically God says, for example, many times in the Old Testament you have. Let's just take Jonah for example. God said to Jonah, go and preach in 40 days. I'm going to judge them. Well, Jonah goes and he preaches, and lo and behold, they repent. And God says, I'm not going to judge them now. But God had arranged it where both Jonah's preaching and the repentance of the people were a part of his plan. They were in his mind in response to Jonah's obedience
to preach to them. So we need to be careful. I don't want God to do things according to the dictates of my mind.
Yes, or someone else's.
Yeah, he's infinitely good and immeasurably wise and sovereign and loving. And I say, Lord, I don't want to change your mind about this or that. I want you to change my mind so that I'll ask in accordance with your character and your purposes.
So the few instances in the Bible that at first blush it may appear a mind has been changed. Actually, just someone jumped in the gap with prayer to fulfill his ultimate sovereign will. Is that fair?
Right. Yeah. His ultimate sovereign will. Is that after having said I'm going to do this or that, he ordained that someone like, for example, Moses intercedes for Israel and God says, okay, I won't judge them after all. So yes, the prayers that we pray that seem to change the course of direction in God's purpose was part of God's eternal purpose in the first place.
That makes perfect sense.
Doctor Sam storms our guest right now. Give a word on praying in Jesus name. There's a lot of discussion around that. You've written about that in your book. Talk about it.
First of all, understand what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that if I tack on those precise words at the end of my prayer, that guarantees that I'll get what I ask for. It's not like we put a rabbit's foot on the end of our intercession and trust. It's going to, you know, bring about reality that we
want to see happen. I think in the name, when he talks about praying in the name of Jesus, he's saying, pray with the understanding that the only reason why the God of this universe hears you is because His Son, Jesus Christ, lived a sinless life for you and died and rose again from the dead. It's based on the idea that access to the father is through the son. Praying in his name means praying in accordance with his character. We can't ask him for things that are a violation
of his character. Praying in his name means praying in conformity with his revealed purposes. Praying in his name means that we acknowledge that we are helpless and hopeless without him. And it says we are dependent on who Jesus is and what he has done. So, for example, you don't have to actually say the words and we pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen. It's a heart attitude.
It's an attitude that says, I'm asking this ultimately for the glory of Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he's done for me, acknowledging my complete dependence upon him. I always use the words because they're there in Scripture, but I've known people and I've often wondered, and I've asked them, why did you close your prayer
without saying Jesus name? They said, well, I was praying in Jesus name for all the reasons I've just explained, but I didn't want people to think that somehow that's a magical incantation, that saying those words in itself is going to make a difference. It's what the words imply. It's the theology behind them that is so central.
I want to wrap this where we begin, because I think one of the most compelling things I've ever heard on prayer you shared today, and it really flows out of James call to our life. And that is we don't have because we don't ask Sam, this is huge. You're telling me, in essence, there are some blessings left on the table. If we go to glory without opening our mouth, there's some things that God really desires to
do with his children that he loves so much. If we would but bring them to the Lord in prayer.
Absolutely. And I know that's hard for some people to swallow. Uh, you know, I believe very strongly in the sovereignty of God. It's his power is immutable. And it sounds as if we're saying that God is frustrated and he's not, because if he really, in the depths of his heart, wants to give us something that he knows is best for us, he will so move upon us that we will in fact, ask him for it. I want people to really think about what James says. He's talking there about praying for
the sick. And the illustration that he uses to encourage us is of all people. Elijah and I remember when I first read that, I said, wait a minute, James. You're telling me that I have the same access and the same power in my prayers as Elijah did when he prayed? And it didn't rain for three and a half years.
And.
He prayed again, and it rained. And yet James says, well, hold a minute, Sam. Elijah was of like nature with you, just as weak, just as frustrated, just as doubtful, just as sinful as you. And yet look at how God used his prayers. That's a remarkable fact, that of anybody that he would choose to encourage us to pray. He uses a man of such incredible character and great supernatural prowess as Elijah. He says, but he's just like you. So pray.
That's powerhouse. Sam Storms everybody. You want to get a copy of something that's going to peel some spiritual paint off the veneer and get it right down on it with prayer. Ali, what do we have?
Just text storm to 800 555 7898. This is going to take you to Doctor Sam Storm's website, where you can find a lot of resources. There's blogs, there's articles, there's sermons. The book is there as well. Just text storm to 800 555 7898.
A basketball mom who's mastered the dad joke. Ali is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, coming off that interview with Sam, I got to tell you, man, this guy, he is one of our favorites. There's no question about it. And what I. What I love about Sam is that everything that he's talking about comes from a deep theological understanding, which is knowing God and how he works. Um, otherwise, you get all kind of urban myths out there about what's going on, man, with, with regard to prayer. And that site that you're going to go to is just loaded with unbelievable content and
it's free. Uh, and then obviously a link to his brand new book on prayer. So check it out. Text storm to 805 55. Five. 78. 98. Given resources to help you take your next step with Jesus. Okay. Guess what it is. Let me check. Sure enough, it's Wednesday. It's bottom of the hour. It's one of your favorite stop in times here. It's like drive thru grub for the soul. Hang on.
It's time making herself laugh no matter who joins her. It's time for Allie. Thinks it's funny.
Drive, drive thru grub for the soul.
Sure. It's a quick stop. Yeah.
Quick snippet.
Okay, I like it.
Stop in here.
Get a couple of jokes.
It'll stop in little dad joke for you.
I'd like to order two jokes, please.
Oh, that was corny. Jonathan, I love it.
Thank you.
Way to go all in on that. What did the lunchbox say to the refrigerator? What did the lunchbox say to the refrigerator? No, don't hate me because I'm a little cooler. Come on, young Thunder.
You asked.
For two.
Jokes.
I did, I did ask for two jokes.
Food related.
So there you go.
There you go. Next up, um, you know how you have to get your alerts to change your password here at Moody? Man, we get those. Those things come at you.
Fast.
And furious. Oh, yeah.
Time to change your password.
I changed it two days ago.
And it's tough to keep track of all of them. Can we all agree?
I agree, of course. Yes.
Here's what you're not supposed to do. A little safety tip. You are not supposed to use the same password across many platforms. That makes you more vulnerable to security risks, right? So vary those passwords. Well, one Gen-xer did not listen to that advice. Why did the Gen-xer change all of his passwords to Kenny? Kenny family name, I don't know. Why do you think he changed all his passwords to Kenny? He wanted to have all Kenny Loggins.
Not gotta cut loose, Footloose. Kick off your Sunday shoes.
All right, let's go.
I think the.
Song saved.
It. Yeah. It did.
Exactly.
I don't think you could do a joke without the song.
I mean, yes, of.
Course it takes the song. Otherwise, some people are going, Who's Kenny?
I was going to say.
Hold on.
You bailed out.
What?
Oh, yeah. You got to get. You got to wait for the good part.
Yeah. We can't bail out. We missed it. Yeah. Oh, no. Sykora said no, it was the chorus.
That was the chorus.
Oh, that was it.
That was.
It. Yes. This is a little bit more.
You want more?
Oh, yeah. A little bit. Give me a little more Kenny Loggins. Everybody right here.
Passing you by? I'm trying to tell you it will if you don't even try. You can fly if you'd only cut loose.
That'll get you up. Get you going. Welcome aboard.
Kickoff Sunday.
We need to record Jonathan doing the no. You know.
Take me the.
Kevin.
Bacon.
The footloose.
Oh. The dance.
Yeah. The kick.
Oh, the the kick. You know, the head nod. Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Super decent here. Doing it like.
She's.
Doing the little thing with her head. Text jokes to 800 555, 78, 98. If you want those jokes, song not included, you got to provide your own music. Text jokes to 805, five.
Five.
78, 98. You know, you got to have those product you got. They got to tell you what's not included when you get it.
Very true.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Jokes to 800 555 7898.
She's a choreographer extraordinaire, and everything is Greek to her. Super die is in the crew. It's Carl and crew on Moody Radio.
Well, sometimes it's a drawer in your house that has all the stuff that you don't have anywhere else for anyone. Have a drawer like that. I used to call it the junk drawer. It was just a collection of everything. But sometimes that junk drawer spills out to the counter and to the table, and then it can take over a room, and all of a sudden, the clutter in our lives can become more than just something we can shut and pretend we don't see. Kathy Lipp. We're talking clutter coming up.
He's a sports fanatic with a stat for anything you can think of. Young Thunder is in the crew. It's curling crew on Moody Radio.
Well, it's usually one thing, isn't it, Ali?
It's usually that one thing that when you start to think about, why am I stuck? Why am I not living the life that I want to live? Usually there's one big thing that comes to mind first that's holding you back, right?
Yeah, but. But the beauty of it is, if we can. And I've seen this so many times. You want some hope today? Boom crew. If you can get victory over that one thing. I kid you not, it is a domino effect. It's a flywheel effect. It's one victory gives birth to another. And we got someone who has seen a victory birthed in her life. Kathy, how are you doing this morning?
Oh, I'm just amazing. Thanks so much for having me on. Carl and Ali.
So clutter was eating your lunch and maybe everyone in the home.
Oh, absolutely. Eating my lunch, taking my lunch money, doing all the things. Absolutely. My dad was a hoarder, and I've never been a hoarder, but I have definitely been in that space where, like, you just can't make the next decision because there's so much stuff in your house. And so I that was my one. Well, I've had many things, but that was one of my one thing.
But it's a big one.
Wasn't.
It?
It's a huge thing. And, you know, it's so interesting because if you look at the New Testament, Jesus talks about money and possessions more than anything else. This is no surprise that this was going to be a problem for many of us in our lives, and I was one of them.
Kathy Lipp, our guest right now, she's an author, speaker, blogger. She hosts a podcast called The Clutter Free Academy. Now let's talk about this. Remember a couple years ago here on our morning show, we started talking about this issue. And very quickly, Karl, I'm sure you remember this. The number of responses that we got from people who said
clutter or hoarding or stuff. It was overwhelming the amount of people for whom this was such a big issue, and so many of them had so much shame associated with it. The feeling of, I don't want people to come into my house. I'm not able to fully be active in ministry the way I'd like to. The effects of clutter, even if it doesn't get to the. The term hoarding it keeps us from living our best life. Did you feel that?
Oh, Ali. I was the person who. If you wanted to come over for coffee, we were drinking that on the front porch because there was no way you were coming into my house. And here's the thing. Like the people who struggle with clutter are the kindest, most generous people I have ever met in my entire life. But
you're absolutely right. There's a barrier. And we're struggling against marketing messages that say, if you want to live life, you need this thing and that thing and all these things, but then also your house should look like you possess none of those things. And it is a battle.
It is a battle and hide it all. Yeah.
Exactly. And I don't know about you guys. I do not have that much storage in my house. And so I had to really reconcile, not just with the getting rid of stuff, but keeping stuff from coming in in the first place. And it's a battle.
I got to ask you something here.
You mentioned.
Something. Why is it that the sweetest, kindest. I mean, most gentle people on the planet have sometimes the biggest problems with clutter? Is there something going on there? What's going on?
I think one, we are people pleasers. We want to make sure that everybody is taken care of. We want to do all the things. And so and also I'm just going to say it's going to sound weird, but I think it's very hard for us to say no. And that is including with marketing messages. It's including saying no to our kids. It's including saying no to our parents who say, you want my 24 settings of China, right? And we have a hard time saying no, even in
our own best interest. And it's something that we have to work at and something we have to get better at.
So, Kathy, what did it look like? One for you to first make the recognition that, okay, this is something that is a problem for me and I need to start working toward victory, because it's easy for this to be a low level, kind of low underlying thing for decades and never be addressed. But you must have reached a point where you went, enough is enough. I got to do something about this.
I think it was several things happening at the same time. I think it was one the recognition of I am limiting my life because I'm not inviting people over to my house, to the amount of time I spent stuck not being able to get rid of things, not being able to make decisions and feeling overwhelmed all the time, and not wanting to pass that on to my kids.
And then also recognizing the amount of money that was going into not just buying this stuff, but organizing it, the containers, the all the stuff and all of those things took me off of God's purpose. And so, you know, to not being able to have a friend over for a cup of coffee, to not be able to give money to the organization. I wanted to all of that hit at the same time, and I knew I had to make a difference in my life.
Kathy Lipp is our guest right now, and we're going to have a keyword for you and some resources that are going to help you because we give hope, help and healing around here. Kathy. There has to be a time when you look at yourself and go, okay, this clutter thing, I'm missing the mark. I'm going to call it what it is. It's sin. I'm missing the mark. That's tough because we've got to get through that threshold of going. This is not just clutter. This is something
going on inside of me. And what is that thing inside of you? You've you've hinted at it, but for you specifically, what was it?
It was fear, guilt and shame. Fear. I'm not going to have enough guilt. I've spent so much money on it. I need to keep it for the rest of my life. And shame. Somebody else gave this to me. And if I give it away, it means that that person is no longer important to me. And when I recognize that, and I admitted it to somebody else out loud because I think this it is the most shame inducing thing, you know. I've also struggled with my weight my whole life. I've lost £100 in my life, but I would say
that this felt more shameful than that. And so, to finally come to the realization, I need to talk about this with somebody, whether that's a counselor or a trusted friend, and say, I need to get, you know, this fear, guilt and shame is eating me up, and I want to live a different life. And you can. You absolutely can. I've seen it happen hundreds, if not thousands of times. The recovery from this.
So, Kathy, what does the recovery from something like this look like? Because, you know, you see, like the Pinterest worthy homes where everything's white, all the cabinets are white, all the furniture is white, no pets or children in sight. But what is what are you aiming for when you say clutter free academy or clutter free home? And this is now your thing. What's the goal?
The goal is to walk into a space and feel like you belong there, to feel like, you know. Yeah, I don't want to live in somebody else's perfect house. And by the way, I'm always going to have clutter because I live a big life. I, you know, mail comes in, groceries come in. I'm working on a craft project. Like, there's always going to be some clutter. But clutter is life. It's the it's the excess that. That's where it starts
to weigh us down. And so I want to have a home where if you walk in, you know that there is life going on there, but you also don't feel overwhelmed by that life.
So is this a bite at a time rather than this whole big old elephant? One room, one closet, one drawer. What is it?
Yeah. The most depressing sentence in the English language is I'm going to declutter my house today, I mean.
Oh, gross. I know, thank you.
But if I say I'm going to do 15 minutes on this junk drawer or I'm going to do 15 minutes, just like pulling my living room back together and people think, oh, Cathy, you have not seen my house. 15 minutes isn't going to do it. 15 minutes is more powerful than you think. So set a timer. Do 15 minutes. Don't you know? Don't be distracted. That email will wait. That social media post will wait. Just do it for 15 minutes. And
you know what? Even if the first 15 minutes doesn't make a difference, by the third 15 minutes, you're going to be seeing a real difference and you're going to start to love your space more.
I got a crazy question. I was driving past a big old storage unit yesterday. I mean, a behemoth, and I've heard the stories on this that a lot of people have these things. In fact, I love to ask questions to people all the time. So I was in a storage unit place one time. I said, what's the most storage unit someone has here? You know, she said, five. And I said, they must. They must have a business. No, she says, it's just household goods. And this person was
so bold with her. The manager of the storage place that they were filled with shame. Someone listening? Not someone. Thousands have a storage unit in that sucker haunts them. They're paying 149.99 a month for.
This stupid.
Thing. And how do you. How do you ever get there?
Yeah. So once you know that you are not alone, there are more storage units than there are McDonald's.
Wow.
So, yeah, if that gives you an idea about that.
You don't mean individual units. You mean places.
I mean places, uh, storefronts.
Goodness.
Yeah. You know, I live incredibly rurally. You know, there is not a McDonald's for an hour and a half from where I live. But I can think of seven storage unit places. So you are not alone. This is. This is the money cycle that we live in the United States. We spend the money and then we spend money to store the money. And so I would say, if you can have it, a goal, if you have five storage units, get it down to four. You can
do that, I promise you. And here's the thing. If you are not using it, think about the time, the money, the energy that that is draining from you to store those things. And I like to think about it this way. When I donate something that is getting into the hands of somebody who will actually use it. People are not. I mean, yes, there are some people who are going to, you know, the goodwill or other organizations and buying things they don't need. But when I was a single mom,
that's how I furnished my home. That's how I clothed my kids. People were giving their things that they were no longer using. And it helped create a life for this single mom. And so I want you to think about, could you be putting that into use for somebody? Because the sad thing about storage units is people are storing things and those things are becoming obsolete, or they're becoming eaten by moths. We we know about this biblically.
It's biblical, it's biblical.
And so get that into the hands of somebody who can use it. Maybe God gave you that extra money to buy that thing so that it could get into the hands of somebody who actually needs it.
Cathy Lippe, she has the Clutter Free Academy podcast, also has books. Her website has some really great tools. I just was looking Cathy at your 50 like quick micro sorting. I gave me so many ideas that I want to try when I get home.
I love it Ali. Thank you.
Ali's going to do her 15 minutes in the drawer thing.
Got my day planned out and it's not decluttering my whole house. Maybe I'll do one drawer today.
That's it.
Text clutter will set you up. Text clutter to 800 555 7898. If you want more from Cathy Lipp, our guest this morning, text clutter to 800 555 7898.