the dirt that gathers...

Yesterday was family work day at our house. It was not an easy day and we only got about half of what we actually wanted to get done. But there was some major progress and some fun had by all. We have lived in this house for 5 years and yesterday we did things we have wanted to do since we moved in.
We added 'lockers' to our garage. We enter the house from the garage, and have always had piles of coats and shoes in the garage.

We replaced the hall closet doors :)

We replaced the light fixture in our bedroom with a ceiling fan.

And we also did our annual Clean out the garage and donate our 'junk' to the church garage sale.
This 'annual' event actually didn't happen last year so it really needed to be done this year. We have kids, so we have stuff that collects- toys, bikes, strollers, and baby items we aren't using. We also live in the country on a gravel road, so we track A LOT of dirt into our garage.

There is a point to all this... stay with me.

I had a bad attitude because things were taking forever. I was wondering, what is beautiful about this? What can I be thankful about in this moment? I was trying to decipher what I was supposed to be learning. I was grumpy. As I was thinking this, my job consisted of sweeping the garage floor. It was quiet (husband was bathing kids) and I was alone in the cloud of dust I was attempting to get out of our garage.

I was sweeping, and dumping my piles into the 5 galon pail... and then sweeping more, and more, and more. Feeling like was getting nowhere.  But then I looked into the pail and saw how much I had already cleaned out. There was a lot! I had made some progress, I had gotten ALL of that out of the garage. But it didn't look much better. There was still alot of dust and dirt and yuck on the floor.

So I kept working, kind of liking the quiet, kind of choking on the dust. Finally feeling like I had made some progress. I looked down and saw this

So what!  you may be thinking. It is just a line of dirt. To me it was a 'moment'. A significant image given to me to illustrate what I was to have learned from this cleaning out of the garage job. There was a distinct line on the ground- the clean and the dirty. I had worked hard to get rid of the dirt on the floor and there was evidence of change. There was still dirt on the floor, but the 'clean' side, was remarkably better than the 'dirty'.

It made me think of our lives. Of the 'garages' in our lives. I can unknowingly and over time fill my life with dirt. It piles up and I don't even really recognize it's presence until I take a good look around. Until I decide I want to do something about it. There was so much more dirt in our garage than I had ever realized, but I had chosen to ignore it and just carry on with life. But once I got cleaning it, I saw how much better getting some of it out felt and looked. It was hard work, and it took time, I got dirty and was not happy about having to do it. But that pail ended up nearly full of all the junk and dirt that I cleaned off the garage floor. There was progress made. Today when we went into the van to go to church one of the boys said, "It's like a whole new garage." And I agree.

But in order to get to that state of cleanliness in our own lives, we need to look at what has been piling up. What is it that we need to shovel into a pail and get rid of? What work may it require for us to clean up a bit? Are we willing? If we keep the end result in mind it sure is easier.

I also got thinking about the 'new garage' look and was convicted about how we let it slowly get dirty again. Day by day we let dirt pile up and junk gather, again, not recognizing it for what it is. I was convicted that I need to take care of my home more regularily, looking into those spots where things gather. And metaphorically, I need to daily take the junk of my life to the Lord and ask Him to help me clean up. It's alot easier and less painful to clean up daily by going to God, than trying to take pail fulls to Him. I need to put systems in place that will help me to prevent that junk from settling in my life. This may mean accountability, regular prayer times, or avoidance of certain activities.

So somewhere in a cloud of dust in my garage, God gave me something tangible to grasp onto. An image that will stick with me and remind me of how much He wants me to live purely and how He wants me to bring my 'dirt' to His pail daily.