A Mighty Cleaning

We spent the last two Saturday's cleaning Dave's house and making it our home. It was exhausting, but very rewarding to sit back and see how far the house has come. If you were to ask his last two roommates, I am certain they would tell you that Dave is a clean guy. He had a cleaning rotation schedule that included dusting, vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen. Dave makes his bed everyday and keeps his room picked up. He also cares well for his yard; keeping it mowed and the leaves raked. From the outside and the inside surface, it seemed clean. No need for much more work. But if you were to look deep inside you would see all the traces of life (hard times and everyday activities) - from random splatters on the kitchen and living room shutters to the base boards covered in dust and dog hair. Life takes it tolls. But we cleaned and cleaned these last few weeks and it looks great! I am very thankful for the energy we were given to get so much done.

Through all this I was humbly reminded of life. How from the surface we often seem well maintained and groomed. We can have the appearance of keeping it all together and even if you were to look just inside, it might seem that way still. But if you had the privilege of digging deep in to someone's life, you would see all the effects of life. The effects of choices made, of messes left unattended, of people only passing through and so on...like the hands we used this weekend to scrub and wash clean, God dives into our lives to wash us clean. The beauty of His cleaning is that in the end we are as white as snow. Dave and I will never get our entire house as white as snow, but I bet we spend many years trying. There will always be something to clean, something that needs to be healed, and something that needs some loving attention to make it better than before. And we hope that people will enjoy the efforts we put in by coming to visit, but we realize many will not notice that the shutters are clean and the microwave vent is dust free. Thankfully, from experience I can say that when the Lord does a mighty work in our lives, others notice. It’s inviting, it’s welcoming and others want to know how to get it themselves. Not everyone will know the details of the cleaning, but it’s worth it. It takes work. Even though the house received the works of our hands alone, healing and change in our lives takes work on our part as well as God's. Work in our lives requires us to receive the work of His hands and ours at the same time. It is definitely worth all the efforts! Just like we feel when we sit down and enjoy our clean home, Our Father enjoys our cleansed heart through His partnership with us. And like the house, the work is never done. But joyful times are had in the midst, much like the small gathering of friends we had over to celebrate the upcoming events.

Through all this, I’m encouraged to keep pushing towards the goal to win the prize. And like Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Amen…keep pressing on. In the words of a dear, dear friend and mentor…“Believe, it’s worth it!”