Fibber McGee's Closet
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
“A neglected [prayer] closet is the beginning of all spiritual decline.” – C.H. Spurgeon
I am too young to remember Fibber McGee and Molly, a popular husband and wife radio program that ran from 1935 to 1959 (the year I was born). A real-life couple, Jim and Marian Jordan, portrayed the title characters.
The McGee’s home, which they allegedly won – with ticket #131, 313 – in a raffle conducted by Mr. Hagglemeyer's Wistful Vista Development Company, was located at 79 Wistful Vista. Among the regulars and frequent guests on the show were Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, the Old-Timer, Tini (also known as Lil Girl and Sis), Mayor La Trivia (played by Gale Gordon of Here’s Lucy fame), Foggy Williams (also played by Gordon), and a handful of other very colorful characters. However, the unquestioned stars were Fibber, a habitual storyteller and compulsive schemer, and his long-suffering wife Molly.
The most popular and endearing gag on the program was Fibber’s notoriously over-stuffed hall closet. Whenever the door was opened, an avalanche of assorted items would come pouring out with a deafening roar. Once the “dust had settled” and the clatter had ceased, Fibber usually repeated his famous punch line: "I gotta get that closet cleaned out one of these days."
The closet that Charles Spurgeon is referring to in today’s quote isn’t one stuffed with clothes, toys, or miscellaneous other household items. On the contrary, it a quiet place where a believer can get alone with God and meditate on His Word, offer Him praises, and make petitions of the Most High. That closet can be located virtually anywhere: in a bedroom, an office, a back porch, a car, or an open field. It can be found on a boat in the middle of a lake or on a plane high above the earth. The only prerequisites are God, you, and a lack of distractions.
In that prayer closet, God speaks to a person’s heart, spiritual batteries are recharged, and mountains are moved (Mark 11:23). Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon or a bear from a long winter’s siesta, a sincere believer stands equipped and ready to take on the world for Jesus Christ.
“And when He had sent them away, He [Jesus] departed to the mountain to pray.” Mark 6:46 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
