A few years ago, I had a room full of sewing paraphernalia, and it was a mess with a capital M.  MESS.  A dear friend was helping me clean it up... we like to do this kind of thing.  We're weird.  This time, while we talked and worked, one of her friends stopped by. 

Now we all have our own way to clean things.  There are those that polish up the outside and shove it all behind closed doors/drawers.  This has an advantage of ensuring the room looks clean in a relatively short amount of time.  Others work from the inside of the closets and drawers- creating a bigger mess, but making room for things to go in the long run.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I'm the latter person.  My husband and I are perfect compliments to each other in this area.  He's a surface cleaner.  He can make a room look perfect in very little time.  I'm a deep cleaner.  As a child, my parents would tell me to go clean my room and I'd start by dumping all my drawers on my bed and refolding everything.  So between the two of us, I pull it all out and put it back nicely cleaning the floors, shelves, and such, and he goes along and cleans up after me and the combination is perfect.

However, my friend is just like me.  We're cleaning, digging, perfecting small spots as we go, and her friend walks in, takes one look at the mess, how we're "cleaning" it, and she says, "You're just transferring the mess."

Ouch.

She's right.  That's exactly what we were doing.  And to be honest, I had no intention of doing it any other way.  It's how I clean best.  It takes me longer but it gets done right and it stays done right.  It works for me.

But she's still right.  Transferring the mess is very inefficient.  It's also a way to avoid the job.  It's also, in another application, a very good way to "cast your cares on Him."  We need to develop a habit of "transferring the mess" in our lives to His shoulders.  Learn to let go of the baggage that you can't carry, clean, or change anyway.  Let it go.  So your mother-in-law thinks you're a bad housekeeper because she showed up the day your kids were spewing their last meal all over the floor.  So what?  Give it to Jesus.  Let Him be your defender.  Let His love and light shine through you as you compliment her beautiful shiny counter tops and polished floors.  So a woman at church accused you of doing something that you couldn't possibly have done.  Transfer it to Jesus.  Let Him handle the mess.

Sometimes we have to tackle things head on- jump right into the fray and clean it out.  Other times, we need to transfer the mess to His shoulders.