Spring Cleaning

As I look around my home in the bright morning light I am energized with the possibilities of a beautiful day yet unexplored, until I spy small particles of airborn pollen and dust floating in my open windows. Spring is finally here! Allergy Alert!

I'm having one of those weeks where my eyes are itching and tearing up, my nose is dripping and my throat is slimey. I guess it's time to put my SUPERWOMAN costume on. This consists of a ponytail, my stretched out and stained yoga pants(don't kid yourself, housekeeping is very much like yoga if you think about the many twisted and stretched movements it takes to reach cobwebs) an oversized ratty tee-shirt and my sneakers. But what really makes my costume complete are the yellow playtex gloves and the baby blue dust mask over my nose and mouth,as well as the safety glasses I've recently added (to protect my eyes from falling ceiling fan grime goons).

Yes, I am now ready to tackle the messy build up of a long winter encampment! I don't move well in cold winter months! I prefer cooking to cleaning! I like visiting with friends over feeling trapped by my own four walls. And so I am astonished that in my brief departure from sunlight so much has been taking place around me in terms of downright neglect. And so this week with my trusted sidekick home from college, we will literally go where no man(in my family) has ever gone before! Into the cracks and crevices of darkness, searching out the closets of chaos, vacuaming up a variety of home invaders!

My first attack was on the tile floor in my kitchen. The grout was screaming to be set free from the grimey build up that had slowly caused a dull and lackluster appearance. This is where the super power took over. The Holy Spirit to the rescue!! The mundane and repetitive act of scrubbing was wearing me into a state of apathy. Maybe it was a waste of my time to expect the grout to come back to the original state and color. Perhaps I was putting my energy into an area of my home that wasn't necesary, what if I couldn't finish the whole floor today! And last but not least, if I stop now then only half of the floor will look done!

The Spirit began to show me how change is a choice,how it takes time and repitition to restore an area of my life to it's original beauty! I recognized that the goal here was not just a clean floor but a maintained surface. As hard as it is to admit my limits, I was also aware that like the grout, there are tiny groves that have collected deposits brought in on the feet of others who walked over my life, without concern for keeping it clean. It was my job to take care of what I could see. The Holy spirit would loose the grit and grime from the hidden places beyond my own ability. And why worry about what is not completed today when tomorrow will offer time to come back and do yet one more tile to perfection. It is much better to do a big thing half way today, then to walk away in defeat. Who knows tomorrow may produce better results toward the finished work.

I am reminded that He(Jesus) who began a good work in you , is faithful to complete it! Don't grow faint hearted when the mess is revealed, put on your superwoman costume( from Ephesians 6:10-12) The full armor of God ! For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. { And sometimes they float in on the light of a beautiful sunny morning as specks of dust. }