I was thrilled to have new carpet when I moved into my home several years ago. My previous home had ugly, charcoal-gray, commercial grade carpet, but with more kids coming along and messing it up, my husband and I decided to wait to replace it until they were older. We never did replace that carpet. We found ourselves fixing up that house as best as we could to sell it while my husband's company transferred us to Houston. When we found the house we wanted to buy, I was excited for the bright new floors that would come with the bright new house. I was excited about it all being new! New appliances, new floors, new walls with no nail holes, new counter-tops, new everything! Oh my! I had never lived in a brand-new house and I had grandiose ideas of how to keep it all "perfectly" clean!
Enter children. And children's friends. And pets. And a husband. Six months after moving into our new house with all of its newness, I found myself distraught over the sight of my previously light beige carpet. My "new" carpet resembled the old charcoal gray carpet I had left behind in Colorado, and I was longing for that old dark gray carpet once again. At least it hid dirt well. I tried every cleaning method I knew of or heard of, but as the years wore on, so did my carpet. My husband bought me a carpet cleaning machine and I used it faithfully and as often as I could. Still though, no matter how hard I tried, my carpet never resembled its original self that was in my house the day I moved in. Initially it would look better, for a while, but then the spots and stains seemed to resurface once again. We waited and almost eight years to the day of moving into our house, we started ripping that old carpet out and replacing it with new laminate flooring.
Pulling up all of that old, nasty, dirty carpet felt so good! Instead of loving my carpet, I had grown to despise it. I was shocked though, that what I found underneath that carpet was even dirtier than the carpet itself. There was a concrete slab and piles of dirt and dust. It looked like the builders had a paint ball fight too, as there were huge splotches of paint scattered across the concrete. We vacuumed, swept and mopped that floor before installing the new flooring. Down went the new flooring and when it was completed, I found myself having that "new house" feeling all over again.
It occurred to me that sometimes my life is in need of deep cleaning too. Sometimes I've done things, on the surface, to give myself a spruce up. You know what I'm talking about-- I'll be more diligent in my bible reading, serve in some capacity at church when needed, reach out to certain people that I don't ordinarily have a conversation with, eat better, exercise more, stay away from sugar....or fat....or whatever the trend is at the moment, get myself into another women's bible study on being the Proverbs 31 woman. Aauugh! Are you exhausted? I am. Maybe I get tired because I am trying to do all of these things in my own strength, instead of letting the Lord's strength peel back the deeper layers. It all looks good, for a time, but if I haven't cleaned out the underneath layer of attitudes, mindsets, habits or other dirty things, those old stains and spots on my life tend to resurface. You know what I mean?
None of those things I mentioned above are bad, wrong, or unnecessary. Churches usually need volunteers, we do need to read our bibles and we should reach out to people. But what is underneath your motive for doing all of that? Is it to look like you're doing the right thing? Is it to make yourself feel better about one area of your life? Is it because you think that by doing these things, there will be a metamorphosis of change and that somehow by doing these things, you will become a better person? Might I suggest that true change doesn't happen with what we do on the outside....rather it happens when we start with the innermost layer, the one we rarely share with anyone else. The good news is that God is aware of that innermost layer and he knows exactly what needs cleaned out and what needs to stay! It is when we let him do the work he needs to do that we can rest in knowing that we don't have to keep trying, striving, and doing in order to be the person he intends for us to be.
"For consider Him who endure such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lost heart in struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Hebrews 12:3, 4 (HCSB)
My friends! Take heart...we are all walking this journey together!
Enter children. And children's friends. And pets. And a husband. Six months after moving into our new house with all of its newness, I found myself distraught over the sight of my previously light beige carpet. My "new" carpet resembled the old charcoal gray carpet I had left behind in Colorado, and I was longing for that old dark gray carpet once again. At least it hid dirt well. I tried every cleaning method I knew of or heard of, but as the years wore on, so did my carpet. My husband bought me a carpet cleaning machine and I used it faithfully and as often as I could. Still though, no matter how hard I tried, my carpet never resembled its original self that was in my house the day I moved in. Initially it would look better, for a while, but then the spots and stains seemed to resurface once again. We waited and almost eight years to the day of moving into our house, we started ripping that old carpet out and replacing it with new laminate flooring.Pulling up all of that old, nasty, dirty carpet felt so good! Instead of loving my carpet, I had grown to despise it. I was shocked though, that what I found underneath that carpet was even dirtier than the carpet itself. There was a concrete slab and piles of dirt and dust. It looked like the builders had a paint ball fight too, as there were huge splotches of paint scattered across the concrete. We vacuumed, swept and mopped that floor before installing the new flooring. Down went the new flooring and when it was completed, I found myself having that "new house" feeling all over again.
None of those things I mentioned above are bad, wrong, or unnecessary. Churches usually need volunteers, we do need to read our bibles and we should reach out to people. But what is underneath your motive for doing all of that? Is it to look like you're doing the right thing? Is it to make yourself feel better about one area of your life? Is it because you think that by doing these things, there will be a metamorphosis of change and that somehow by doing these things, you will become a better person? Might I suggest that true change doesn't happen with what we do on the outside....rather it happens when we start with the innermost layer, the one we rarely share with anyone else. The good news is that God is aware of that innermost layer and he knows exactly what needs cleaned out and what needs to stay! It is when we let him do the work he needs to do that we can rest in knowing that we don't have to keep trying, striving, and doing in order to be the person he intends for us to be.
"For consider Him who endure such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lost heart in struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Hebrews 12:3, 4 (HCSB)
My friends! Take heart...we are all walking this journey together!
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