(Randomosity warning--I have NO idea where this is going...I'm just rambling, because I think the Lord's trying to get a point across to me and I'm not catching it.)
WHAT was I thinking when I decided to put white flooring in my bathroom? Obviously, I wasn't thinking at all. I wasn't thinking about hairspray. Or my cat. Or shoes that I refuse to take off at the front door. And I never put all those things together to arrive at the conclusion that hairspray combined with profusely-shed cat fur combined with dirt from the bottom of my shoes combined with the water that the shedding cat flings all over the floor when she drinks from the toilet bowl (leave it to me to find a cat that refuses to drink from a "real" bowl") makes for a horrible, cement-like substance that hydrochloric acid MIGHT remove if given the opportunity.
So, there's been this little muddy pawprint (hmm...wonder who THAT culprit might be!) on my bathroom floor for...oh, about a week. Every time I look at it, I think "I need to mop the floor", but thinking was as far as it went. Tonight, when that thought crossed my mind, I grabbed the bottle of citrus cleaner and decided to do a little spot-removal. I sprayed the pawprint and wiped it up. Easy enough. Then, I noticed there was now a lovely paw-shaped WHITE spot in what had suddenly become a 4 foot square of dingy, not-so-clean-as-I thought flooring. That glaring white spot revealed just how dirty the surrounding floor was. I sprayed and wiped some more. More white. But now I could see some caked-on hairspray residue down in the cracks of the tile pattern. More spray, more scrubbing and some vowing to give up hairspray for what's left of Lent and maybe put the cat up for adoption. But I'm still not taking my shoes off at the front door. (And I'll more than likely keep the cat AND the hairspray, too.)
Where's the object lesson here? My heart is pretty much like my bathroom floor (now THAT'S an appealing thought, isn't it?!) Doesn't look too dirty, maybe a little smudged spot, relatively "clean" and presentable. But sometimes I get tired of looking at that smudge and ask God to bring in His handy-dandy spray bottle and mop it up. And THEN I see how much the rest of my presumedly "pretty clean" life dulls in comparison to that one shiny-bright white spot, so I invite God, in His best Jabez-fashion, to expand His territory and clean up a bigger spot.
To a casual observer who is not eyeing my bathroom-floor heart from a critical, closer-than-casual viewpoint, I probably looked "okay" with the smudge. I would definitely look "okay" after the territory-expanding second go-round with the cleaner. But the dirt is still there in the cracks. God knows it. I know it. Anyone who invests in my life in a serious, "authentic community", Body-of-Christ way is going to know it...and I actually want them to. I hope that they might even grab a brush and help Him dig the gunk out of the cracks.
I know I don't want to settle for just looking "good" from a distance. I know I'm imperfect and my heart is full of cracks and crevices filled with the world's crud, but I also know if I'm going to allow Him access to clean one spot, it's going to be a poor reflection on the rest of my dull, dingy, gray life, if I don't ask him to clean up the rest of it, down to the cracks that only HE can see.
"Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow..."
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2 comments:
Wow. Awesome analogy. I too, have plenty of dirt in the cracks that need cleaning. In fact, my prayer lately has been for God to change my heart so that I love people more, seek Him more and to have revealed to me other things inside that I need to change. That's a whole lot of house cleaning!
My literal bathroom floor is also white, so I know what you mean, since I've got the hairspray and cat fur layer as well!!! Hehe....God bless!
ooo...good stuff.
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