A Much Needed Cleaning

I’ve been a woman of few words the last few weeks, and formulating thoughts to express all that I’ve been thinking and feeling during this unusual season seems daunting.

However, I have been listening. With more time free from distractions, I have heard the quiet whispers of hope in the mundane. This weekend while I was dusting, I was provided with an illustration about the hope of Easter.

I desperately wanted a clean house. For most holidays, we find ourselves hosting friends or visiting family. This year, though, there would be no reason that anyone would see whether my house was clean. It simply didn’t matter. This cleaning was just for me.

Determined, I tackled the problem with a vengeance. Moving furniture and climbing on cabinets, I rediscovered the places in my home that no one ever sees. The more I dusted, the more dust I found. The higher I climbed and the deeper I reached, the harder the dust was to remove.

My resolve was waning.

There were places on the top cabinets that I just couldn’t reach. I could just leave it there.

Other surfaces I wiped two and three times. Maybe, I should just surrender.

As I was climbing down from the cabinets, the dust lurking on the ledge of the high cabinet doors screamed, “you might as well give up!”

I decided to concede. If I didn’t go looking for it, I wouldn’t see it, and for that matter, neither would anyone else. I was finished.  

Why am I telling you about the dust in my house?

As I was dusting, I couldn’t help but think that the dust in my house is a lot like my sin. There’s the obvious dust on regularly used surfaces, which gets cleaned almost daily and disappears easily. These are my daily infractions. The places where my flesh falls short in patience, unkind words, or selfish desires. These are the actions and words that I clean up at the end of each day, knowing full well I might have to confess them again tomorrow.  

Then there are the dark hidden places, the sins that are buried in deep parts of my past or corners of my heart. These are the ones I keep hidden from the rest of the world and sometimes even from myself. These take extra time, intentional effort, and personal reflection just to reveal the first layer of contamination in need of restoration.

Most of us live out our days blissfully ignorant to these dark and dirty corners of our hearts. These unmentionable sins are like the deep corner above the kitchen cabinet. It’s a whole lot easier to believe the dust isn’t even there. Cleaning those corners is a difficult process, and many times, isn’t even possible without help.

Perhaps, the most deceptive flaws are those that are so ingrained into my personality that I don’t even see them. I’ve learned survival techniques and incorporated my weaknesses so elegantly into my personality, that others see them as strengths. They look pretty on the outside, and I don’t ever have to address the bruise in plain sight (remember the lurking dust on the cabinet ledge). Living without the weakness would be more difficult than identifying it for what it is – an intruder.  

It is at this point I’m forced to surrender. I can’t do this alone, and that’s the good news of Easter.

Jesus is the one who does the cleaning. I don’t have to purify my own heart or clean the hard to reach places on my own. I don’t have to be ashamed of the sins of my past or cover up my weaknesses in order to be loved by my Savior. Jesus shed His blood, so that I could be restored to God’s original design. God sacrificed His Son, so that my sins would be forgiven.

And He did it for you, too.

As egg hunts are cancelled, celebrations postponed, and we find more quiet moments at home, we have the opportunity to reflect on the areas of our hearts which need cleaning and surrender those places to the One who can reach the tough spots. Jesus has the abundant grace, patience, and love necessary to do the job.

He paid the ultimate price, and not just for our obvious “dust” but for the deep, dark corners of our heart, as well.

That is Good News!

Happy Easter, friends!

Create in me a pure heart, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10