Chillaxin on the weekend
posted by Luke Harper
24Feb
Saturdays are the best day for a teen like me. It may be the sleeping in until noon or watching ESPN for 4 to 5 hours a day. It’s those days that make the weekend great. Even though they may sometimes cause supreme boredom, the chillaxin is awesome.
But just when I think that no one can touch me, as I sit in my pajamas eating Cocoa Puffs, there is one phrase that can ruin a good Saturday. When my mom says those dreadful words, “TIME TO CLEAN YOUR ROOM,” I begin to complain and put it off for as long as I can, until my mom practically locks me in my room and makes me clean it.
I begin to look around frantically, and I dreadfully realize that if I clean my entire room, I will miss three back-to-back episodes of Sports Center. So, of course, me being the lazy teenager I am, I search to find the easiest way to remove all the gym clothes, shoes, last week’s gym socks, old sandwiches, empty Gatorade bottles and lost Spanish reports from 2005.
As I scan my room for a place to cram all these things, I stop at the most amazing escape route to ESPN—“my closet.” So I begin to cram every single thing inside my closet and somehow manage to keep the door from flying open. Then it’s crunch time. My mom comes in for inspection, and of course, I’m praying she doesn’t open the closet.
You see, when my mom stands in the doorway of my room it appears to look really clean. Thankfully, she doesn’t open my closet or look under the bed.
Sometimes my room resembles my heart—to many it looks clean, but if you were able to thoroughly search my heart, I would be embarrassed by what you might see.
Isn’t that how life is sometimes? I run in and clean up my life before people get a good look at me. I just put on this “clean room look” before people when really I have these hidden things in my life that are messy.
I am learning that the only way that I can truly be content with my life is if I let God truly clean my heart (room) and not try to hide my sins in the “closet.” Whenever I open the doors of my heart to God and give Him total access, He is always faithful to clean up my mess. In this case, God acts like my spiritual vacuum cleaner when I lay my sins at His feet!
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness
About the Author
Luke Harper is a high school student in Nashville, and plays three sports: football, basketball, and soccer. He spends most of his time at school, in the gym, or at church.
In his free time, he loves to write, watch ESPN, the Dallas Mavericks, the LSU Tigers, and the Tennessee Titans. He also likes playing video games and volleyball, and chillaxin with his friends. He loves road trips, youth trips, mission trips, pancakes, pasta, and sweet tea.
