I thought I had everything organized and in order. It just shows how useless my thinking is these days.

There are many stacks in my office and on my desk, and I know what is in each stack. Everything is organized according to my specifications. My rule is: if I can’t find something, I don’t need it. Trust me; there are many things that I do not need.

By the end of the week, I was finishing my office area and closing it for the week. I sighed a deep sigh of relief, knowing my work for the week was done. Nothing is more satisfying than when a plan is put together.

It was at this point that the kind lady from the parsonage walked into my office area and said quite strictly, “What is all this garbage?”

At first, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I looked around my office area and couldn’t see any trash. So I asked him, “What garbage do you mean?” It was a very sane and insightful question, at least from my point of view.

I’ve been married long enough to know that there is a different way of thinking and seeing something on both sides of the marriage aisle. After all these years of being married, I just can’t understand his side.

“All this garbage in your office is what I mean,” he replied.

The only garbage I could see in my office area was the trash can, which was full at the time. So I picked up the trash can, took it out, emptied it, and brought the empty trash can.

“There,” I said with some degree of satisfaction, “I got rid of all the garbage.”

You would have thought that being married as long as I have been, I would not have come to that conclusion.

My method of organization is not the same as hers. For example, on the other side of the house, she has what she calls her “Craft Room.” I went in once and it was so organized that I had to get out as quickly as possible. It gave me a headache. It looked like a well-organized artisan goods store. Everything had its place and each place had its own.

My organizing idea is that I know where everything is and if I can’t find it, well, you know the rest.

“Look at all the garbage in your office. How can you work with all this garbage around you?”

Still, I don’t understand what your definition of trash in my room is. But the fact is, I work best when I’m surrounded by what she calls “garbage.”

Then he said something that froze my liver. “I have some time, so let me help you organize your office.”

I know he had good intentions. But I also know that if you organize my office according to your specifications, I will never find anything I want when I want it.

Then he walked quickly to one of my “piles”. I was almost scared.

“No, no,” I said as softly as I could even though I was in panic mode. “Everything is fine, I’ll take care of it, you don’t have to worry.”

Whenever my wife has a project in mind, she cannot stop until she has successfully completed it. She is a very specific and talented organizer. I know that if she organizes my office, it would be supreme.

If she organized my office, it would take me months to get it back to where it works according to my function level.

When I’m done with a project, I go to one of the piles, go through it, and find something that I had forgotten, which becomes my next project. If you were organized, you would never find the next project to do.

I thought my life had come to an end, at least my work life. Then something happened that saved me from this situation.

My wife’s cell phone rang and it was our daughter. She wanted to know something about a craft project she was working on and wanted to know if her mother could help her.

I saw her eyes light up as she left my office area and returned to her craft room to help our daughter. I think that’s why God gives us daughters!

Getting out of this situation was a great thing, but she had to think about what she would do the next time it happened. I needed a plan.

One person’s trash is someone else’s workspace. Just because I don’t understand how my office is organized doesn’t mean I’m not organized, and it doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing in my office.

My workspace, or garbage as my wife says, is my environment to think and work.

As my wife was back in her craft room, talking to our daughter, I think of a scripture verse. “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established” (Proverbs 16: 3).

When I’m in my space, no matter how someone else might do it, I’m in an atmosphere to think about what I need. Most of the time, my thoughts are rooted in God and how he has wonderfully blessed my life.