Confessions of a Junk Drawer Junkie: Turning Weakness into Strength

What's in YOUR drawer?

 
“And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.” --Ether 12:37

I have a confession to make.   I have a junk drawer and it’s full of junk. Lots of it. Pieces, parts, papers, you name it. It’s in there. 

When I moved into a new house recently, I promised I would NEVER create a junk drawer EVER again. Well, sorry to say…it’s ba-ack! I didn’t intend for it to happen. It just happened.

Well, the other day, a guest dropped by and needed a pen. Guess what? Before I could hand her one she did the unthinkable. She reached down to the right-hand side of my kitchen desk drawer and pulled on the handle. I panicked. It was like a Chariots of Fire slow motion run to stop the unthinkable. NOOOOOO! Don’t open that drawer!

Too late. It all happened so fast. Before I could get to the other side of the kitchen, she had already opened the junk drawer and looked down to discover all of my junk for her viewing pleasure, or should I say “displeasure.” There it was; my junk in all its glory and splendor. My secret was out. It was like one of those dreams where you’re naked in school and everyone is starring at you, and for some reason you don’t run out of the room and put on a shirt. (I hate those dreams!) Suddenly, I felt the need to confess.

“My name is Jodi Robinson and I have a junk drawer. I’m not proud of it. But it is what it is. And I accept it.” So, I have a junk drawer. What’s the big deal? I am not a junk-a-holic, but the truth of the matter is I do have a habit of putting stuff in my junk drawer, and I avoid dealing with it because it’s easier to pretend that someday everything in that drawer will magically find a home.

Well, it got me thinking. Why is that we’re afraid to show people our junk? Friends who know me well, know that I’m not bothered by the drop-in visits where I’m caught “naked” so-to-speak with my house not picked up, my kids and I not dressed, and dishes left in the sink from last night’s dinner. Because, when that happens, I’m usually in the middle of a big project or a writing assignment, and I have a good excuse. But… the junk drawer? The hidden, don’t want to deal with “stuff” that feels better if people don’t know it’s there kind of junk? The kind I pretend that’s not really there? That bothers me. I shouldn’t be bothered by the fact that this guest now knows I have a junk drawer and I that own junk. And, better, yet, that I don’t know how to fix it. I have had a junk drawer for as long as I can remember. Oh, sure I get a handle on it temporarily. I throw out the entire junk drawer one day when I feel like de-junking. I say goodbye to whatever is in there without even going through it. I toss it into the garbage can outside, ON garbage day, so I don’t have the option to retrieve it even if I wanted to. And that’s that. But that only happens about once a year. The rest of the time, it’s as if an invisible giant magnet slowly pulls miscellaneous ribbons, coins, dice, and screws, inside that drawer.

In life, we all have junk. There isn’t anybody who doesn’t have junk. So, why are we so afraid to admit it? Why are we so horrified when someone opens that drawer, that personal weakness, to discover buried treasure? As mortal, imperfect beings…it’s no surprise…and it’s no secret that I…you…and everyone around us…has some junk to deal with. It’s life. Either it’s our own personal junk, or our families junk, but, let’s face it…there is going to be junk. There’s no way of getting around it. Marriages are not going to be blissfully perfect all the time. Children are not going to be blissfully perfect much of the time. Jobs, health, relationships—nothing in life is junk averse.

And if it makes you feel any better, I bet that even that lady on your block whose house is so pristine that you could lick her floors…in fact…I’d bet a king size Hershey bar that somewhere in that lady’s house there is a junk drawer, or a box, or a can, or some disorganized holding manifestation full of tiny pieces, parts and papers. It may be smaller…much smaller than your own junk drawer, but it’s there. And guess what? It’s okay. It’s okay because we’re human. And we’re not perfect. We’re supposed to have junk. It’s called mortality. It’s called weakness.

In Ether 12:37 we read, “And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father.”

I LOVE this scripture. So, let’s apply it to my junk drawer. There I was. My junk drawer…my weakness…open for the entire world to see. (Okay, maybe not the whole world. She was just one guest. But still.) Once the drawer was opened, I also SAW it. I was forced to acknowledge that it was there. So, the drawer is open. There’s my junk. And I had two choices. Make an excuse and say, “Hey, how did that drawer get in my house?” Now that would have made me look silly. The other option. Accept it. Claim it. And own it with integrity. “Yes, I have a junk drawer. And, it’s all good because by ‘seeing’ this weakness, just like we read in Ether, I can be made strong with God’s help.”

Friends! We’re human beings not GODS! And if we didn’t have junk we’d be translated. God would whisk us away from this complicated experience called mortality and give us our free pass into the Celestial kingdom. But as far as I can tell I’m still here. And you’re still here.

My name is Jodi Robinson. I have a junk drawer. And in that junk drawer, there may not be demons, but there are some untidy things that, at times, are not as nice and neat as I’d like them to be. And you know what? That’s okay. It feels so much better to admit it than pretend it doesn’t exist. Because then I can begin to do something about it. I can draw upon that promise in Ether that God will bless me with strength to overcome. And that is a beautiful promise.

Well, it’s a new year. Let’s commit to cleaning out our junk drawers and fixing what needs fixing. Let’s have the kind of faith that the woman who touched Christ’s garment had. All she did was, in faith, reach out to touch the Master so he could heal her from her weakness. And Christ did it.

God has a mansion prepared for me. And it’s up to me too clear out my junk drawer so that I can be worthy to live in it. And, you know what the best part of living in that beautiful, glorious mansion will be? There will be no junk drawers. Junk drawers will be a thing of the past. There won’t be even a recollection that they ever existed.

Let’s not be afraid of our junk. Or, other people’s junk for that matter. After all, it’s only junk. It’s not the good stuff. It’s not what we’re really made of. We’re made in the image of an Almighty God. We’re his spirit sons and daughters. Even the most desperate junky has more to his/her being than junk. Our Father in Heaven, who made us, knows how to help us fix our junk and he’s not afraid of our junk either.  He knows what it is and he accepts us and loves us and gives us opportunities to learn how to discard it, not to hide it in some drawer. If we’re going to become the children of God that He needs us to be then we have to choose a better way. We have to deal with our weaknesses and trust in the power of the Atonement of God’s son who will help us become stronger, better, more god-fearing, more god-focused individuals. 

Be honest. Open up that junk drawer and deal with it. And better, yet, you take a look at my junk drawer and I’ll take a look at yours and then let’s help each other to become better; to overcome obstacles; to rise to the occasion; to do the impossible and learn a better way.

My name is…and I’m a junk drawer junkie.


QUESTION OF THE DAY:  What’s the craziest thing you've found in your junk drawer?

Answer:  Once I found a hard, piece of toast. I was mortified. But I did get a good laugh out it.

Comments welcome.