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Saturday, November 11, 2006

Dirty Floors

I live in an apartment building. It has linoleum floors in the kitchen and when I moved here almost 2 years ago, I found that there were some irremovable stains on them. Not that I tried to remove them of course, but they had that irremovable look to them. The kind that seem to be a part of the flooring, like they were made like that. A sort of "used" look.

Anyways, because of the already "used" look of my floor, as well as my bacheloresque skills, my kitchen floor has tended to collect more, well, "used" features. I'm not sure what got into me today, maybe I just had time on my hands, but I got down to some serious cleaning. I was sitting at the kitchen table and noticed the stain under the corner of my fridge. There was a distinct line where my "swiffer" couldn't reach any further and a stain was growing. "That's gross" I finally decided. And got on my hands and knees with some cleaner and paper towel and went to town on that sucker. And from there I had to keep going. Like a man possessed I followed the crack where my floor meets the cupboards and now I can proudly say my floors are clean. Minus the irremovable ones.

I just got thinking of how things can go a while and we get used to the stains we always see. Maybe its because we don't the time to actually stop and look underneath, behind, in the corners and cracks. But it gets really gross. I think that's like our hearts too. When I don't stop and really look, I collect stains and junk. I can get used to how it looks and forget about the great experience of a short account with Jesus. So here's to confession. Here's to repentance. Here's to letting God's Spirit speak into the cracks and corners of our inner selves. And here's to actually doing something about what we hear. Oh yeah, and there's no such thing as an irremovable stain with Jesus.

7 Comments:

Blogger Jin said...

you updated! yay! this is exciting? how was the thing at Stillwood?





oh and btw: good point. God is like Tide Detergent. He gets the stains out that others leave behind.

7:43 PM  
Blogger Josh said...

Chad, you know, I never notice any stains when Im over at your place, but Im sure you looked cute cleaning today, j/k...
Its funny, I think sometimes we're afriad to reflect or evaluate our hearts for stains because the act of confession, repentence, and cleaning can sometimes take time (longer than we'd like) and be messy; but for anyone wanting to be more like Jesus, its a constant procedure that must continually happen.

10:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great analogy, Chad! Hmmmm - I've got a kitchen floor that could use a possessed Mr. Clean if you find yourself with too much time on your hands again - ha!

1:29 PM  
Blogger A Postal said...

Haven't you heard of Mr.Clean Magic Eraser? I've never actually tried it, but I hear it does miracles.

Awesome word, and a great reminder for me. I think often times ,I know for myself, I know the stains, the blemishes, but I almost accept them, and allow them to be a part of me. Whether or not I like them, they're there. But we dont HAVE to live with that. I'd much rather life with the fullness of God.
Thanks.

8:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

good thots, Chum. . . besides being impressed that you did some cleaning, I appreciated your analogy and reminder of the 'stains' that accumulate imperceptibly and need to be dealt with.
Mom

8:25 AM  
Blogger £ a u r i e said...

Chad - well spoken, thanx!

12:25 PM  
Blogger M. A. Hawkins said...

Great post Chad!
Maybe you should start marketing pre-stained or "used" floors in showrooms. Even demonstrate how easy it is to make the new floor look "used".

7:58 AM  

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