When I was first married, my husband and I had many disagreements. In our small apartment with the grubby brown carpet, we were engaged in one power struggle after another.

Let’s make the bed. No, he would say, we’re just going to sleep in it tonight. 

Let’s empty the dishes from the top rack of the dishwasher first.  No, he would say, the ones on the bottom will get wet.

Somehow he had wisdom for me in every department and, somehow, we were usually on the opposite ends of most debates.

Over time, we’ve become good friends with Compromise. These days we make the bed every morning and empty the bottom of the dishwasher first. And thankfully, we are both determined to unpack suitcases and do laundry quickly after a trip.

We agree that it is important to unpack and put the odds and ends back in order, so they will be ready when we need them and we can find them easily.

Sunday, I arrived home from the Declare Conference. As I write this, it is Monday, just after lunch, and my suitcases are nested back together nicely with the washing machine humming and beating out a steady rhythm.  And here is what I keep thinking: It is important to unpack and put the odds and ends back in order, so they will be ready when we need them and we can find them easily.

At the conference, I heard truths about how to combine work and family, creativity and productivity, relationships and ministry and still not forgo self-preservation. Here I am, an all-or-nothing thinker in search of moderation. And I heard Truth about who God is, and who I am in Him and how that does not change.  So now begins the unpacking.

But unpacking Truth is not just for after conferences. 

When you go to church and hear a great sermon, does it fall out of your head in the parking lot?

When you spend “quiet time” in God’s Word, do you softly close the cover of your devotional or Bible, leaving the notes and highlights undisturbed until the next time?

When you clasp hands with someone to pray, do the whispers fall gently like leaves, coming to rest at your feet?

What if we realized that we need to unpack Truth, and store it up, like we unpack our clothes and put them away after a trip? We need take hold of Wisdom — God’s Word applied to our lives — and handle it faithfully. We must store it up, still keeping it at our fingertips to be accessed and applied, as needed.

We need to be doers of God’s Word and not hearers only (James 1:22).

Even though I like to unpack early, sometimes it takes me too long to get all the odds and ends sorted out. My suitcases may stay on the floor in the guest room days or weeks after a trip. Sometimes I handle Truth the same way. When I need that Truth, I look high and low and often in the wrong places…

How much easier would it be to have the Truth stored up faithfully in my mind and heart, where I can grab hold of it easily?

Tell me, are you unpacking the Truth and storing it up in easy-to-reach places?   Let’s all commit to grabbing hold of Truth and handling it faithfully!