purging away my distractions

I've been going to Living Waters Church (well, for two weeks now). In the Sunday sermon we were discussing how people "hear" from God. And someone at one point said that if you're feeling confused, it's probably because a)you have too many distractions in your life or b)the confusion is fed by lies, not by truth.

I've felt confused by a lot of things lately. I've also felt a huge nudge lately to get rid of a bunch of clothes. And call me crazy, but I feel like that nudge is from God. I have a really bad shopping habit. At one point I had my credit card number so memorized that I could type it in (including the security code) with my eyes closed. That's not good for somebody trying not to buy more clothes. Then came the excuses. "Uh, er... it's a gift. Yeah, a gift." LIES. Julie was not buying gifts! It was all for her! It's like when she would say she was buying chocolate bars as gifts in Sweden, to send home to her family. LIES. She ate them all! 15 pounds of Swedish chocolate later she realized it was a bad idea!

Well, I have 15 pounds of distractions in clothing, I'm sure. And I want to shed myself of them. I just spent two hours going through my closet, saying "do I EVER wear this? Did I buy it as an impulse? Did I even try it on? I know I'm in theatre, but do I REALLY need 15 black shirts?"

And now there is a really big tub of clothes and accessories sitting in the doorway, ready to go to value village. Or maybe I should actually take it to the Salvation Army...

Either way, the clothes are just the beginning of the distractions I'm trying to shed to my life. And part of me posting this blog is to brag about the amazing purging job I did. (Although now my room is messier than it was before). But it's also to publicly admit that

a) I'm trying to focus more on God this year.
b) I have a shopping problem, and for this semester I'm not allowed to spend money on clothes unless they are second hand
and c) I'm starting to budget (AHHHH.)

So that's all.