Unshackled Moments ~ Febraury 27 ~ Spring Cleaning

I understand that one had nothing to do with the other, but I personally find it interesting that Lent comes each year during the time or just before the time (depending on the year and the weather) that people often begin to think and work on Spring Cleaning. I never saw the point of Spring Cleaning, to be honest. It was hard enough to keep up with the regular cleaning. The idea of taking time, when the weather was just beginning to get nice again, when I could be resting or playing, to work harder and longer than usual cleaning house did not appeal to me at all. Besides, cleaning rooms that I rarely used or  didn't enter felt like a waste of time. Then someone took me through and showed me.

There were no huge horrible messes, nothing that could be seen from the moment a light switch came on that made you want to go ew, but still, somehow the place had become, well, nasty. Areas on top of cabinets where I can't see or even reach had a layer of dust, no, lets be honest, it was dirt. The baseboards were filthy as well. There are corners where the broom and mop evidently don't reach well that need some special attention. And now I am scared to look behind the refrigerator and the freezer. As much as I don't want to use up my "free" time cleaning, this place is in dire need of a spring cleaning.

We can do the same things in our spiritual life that we do with our homes. It's easy to glance quickly over our lives and see that there are no huge, blatant, hideous sins to be seen. Nothing's tucked in a closest that would make our mother hide her face in shame or ruin ministries. But if we look with an objective eye and a new light, man what we will find? There's a thin stain there we tried to clean up, but we didn't quite get it all, foot traffic here, and the door is literally a different color where the dog scratches to be let in. Little things we don't see anymore, not because they're in the unused areas but precisely because they are in the areas we go through every day. They weren't that bad, and so we instinctively began not seeing them at all. The little areas of wear, tear and uncleanliness that add up to a mess. We think little to nothing of it when it's just us, but tell us we have company coming over and our first thought is panic. I need time to clean first.

Let us remember that Jesus is making His home in us. He is the honored guest that we have invited in, and He has free reign to poke around in our closets and medicine cabinets and even to look under the rug and on top of cabinets. He doesn't even have to get down on His hands and knees to see those stains on the baseboards. Let us reexamine our life in light of the company we keep and get as eager to clean the little, everyday not so bad filth as we would be to clean the huge stains of the past.

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