It didn't take long to notice all the stains. I was so mad! It was going to take forever to get all the spots out of the carpets. (Which then led me to think, "who's the idiot that invented carpet in the first place." It's just nasty on so many levels, ESPECIALLY when you have kids!) After evaluating the damage, I was so overwhelmed that I finished up vacuuming and just headed back downstairs. Maybe I'm the only one, but anytime I'm in a bad mood I have a heightened since of awareness. Haha. I notice everything and everything bothers me. It was in that moment I realized the dirty carpets weren't just upstairs but it was terrible downstairs too! A chocolate milk stain by the front door. A coke stain on the living room rug. Some nasty crunchy substance in the dining room. It was in that moment I almost lost it. It was just too much and in the end I knew I would be spending way too much time on my hands and knees scrubbing stains that would never really come clean.
As I began the unfulfilling task of vacuuming yet another room, my mind went from wondering if the popcorn kernels in the vacuum could get hot enough to start popping (yes,that's how my mind works) to the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart. It was like my eyes were opened and I felt the Spirit say "You were just like that dirty carpet." Who? Me? What? As I vacuumed the rest of the house I began to wonder why all the stains were on the carpet. They were all "accidents". No one really ever purposefully spilled their drink or knock over their popcorn (and if they did...Lord help them), but almost everyone of them was caused by disobedience. My kids know the rules. They may play dumb or "forget", shoot, there may even be days that my parenting is less than adequate and I let them get away with stuff because I'm "too busy" to deal with it or just want 5 minutes too myself.
When I look back on my life, I actually am just like that dirty carpet. I was covered in yucky, nasty stains. Stains that were there mostly because of my own disobedience to God. Stains that I didn't set out to make on purpose. And just like with my carpets, I have spent a LOT of time trying to clean them up myself only to be proven very unsuccessful. The stains are still there. They may have faded a little but the evidences of my sins are ever before me. (For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Psalm 51:3)
A couple weeks after my housekeeping revelation, my husband came home with a carpet shampooer. You know, one of those big, ginormous, professional ones- that I'm not allowed to touch. Then he went to the store and bought a $20 bottle of carpet cleaner (which in itself almost caused me anxiety...I usually buy the $2 stuff...come to think of it, that may be why I can't get the stains out...). We cleared out furniture and rugs and Jimmy got to work. After an hour of cleaning and several dumps of nasty, brown water he was finished. The carpets looked so good! They were clean! Like REALLY clean!
In order to get the carpets really clean we had to move past spot cleaning to heavy duty, professional grade, deep cleaning. For there to be real cleaning progress we had to get something on the carpet that would pull the stains up from the roots of the carpet, not just surface cleaning.
Then I had another thought...
I may be like that dirty carpet. I may be scarred with sin and past mistakes but my God has cleansed me from within. I have tried so often to fix the messes that I have made but all my efforts are nothing more than spot cleaning with a cheap cleaner. I cannot do what God can do. I cannot remove my sin and my guilt. Jesus did all of that on the cross. Every stain and mark was forgiven through the death of Christ. His blood has covered me and made me clean from the inside out. I rejoice in knowing that I don't have to carry the stains of my sin and my mistakes.
And just like my carpets, I will get "dirty" again. I will make mistakes and I will fall, but God's grace is ever before me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He will continue to cleanse me and restore me until the day I have been made into the image of his son.
Other Texts:
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
Pslam 51:2
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16
I'm glad you (finally) decided to blog. As long as you do, you will have one steady customer. I am curious, is ginormous the same as "big honkin". I like to try and get the engineering units straight in my head.
ReplyDeleteSonny Johnson. a.k.a. Phynerk
Thank you Sunny!! I hope to be consistent this time around. Oh, and yes, they are the same....Hahahaha!
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