Copyright © 2026 Women of the ELCA. Reprint permission is granted for use in Women of the ELCA units, clusters/conferences and synodical women’s organizations provided each post is reproduced in its entirety. If you enjoy this resource, Donate Now.

To really clean deeply, you have to strip beds, flip mattresses, empty cabinets and beat rugs. In short, you have to make a mess. That’s one reason I love Franciscan contemplative Richard Rohr’s phrase for the eternal pattern of change and transformation: “Order, Disorder, Reorder.” Could there be a better description of spring cleaning?

Rohr says that for change and transformation to happen, we must move from Order through “a period – or even many periods – of Disorder.” Often that means loss and disappointment. “There will be a death, a disease, a disruption to our normal way of thinking or being in the world,” Rohr says. “It is necessary if any real growth is to occur.” The Disorder stage is all about letting go of control and stepping “out of the driver’s seat for a while,” Rohr says.

Then we can open ourselves to Reorder, where we radically “let go and let God.” Which is why the template for “Order, Disorder, Reorder” is Jesus, who surrendered to God’s will, was crucified and resurrected.

Order, Disorder, Reorder. Life, Death, Resurrection. We enact this pattern again and again as we live our lives and clean our living spaces.

This message is excerpted from “Spring cleaning” by Anne E. Basye in the April 2021 Gather magazine.