Let me start off by saying that I am one of the few “crazies” out there who actually enjoys cleaning…well, most of the time anyway (grin). The other day I was cleaning at a church. As I systematically made my way through the facility, I came to the all-glass main entry doors. When I looked to assess the situation, I noticed fingerprints about thigh-high on many of the glass doors and sidelights. I have to be honest. In my spirit I began to grumble. It went something like this…
“Really people??? Would you allow your children to smear up the windows of your house like that??Don’t you know someone has to clean up that smeared-up mess?! If people would actually watch their children, then……”
This is where the Holy Spirit interrupted my grumble and brought to memory something that happened a while back at my home.
You see, I have sidelights on either side of my front door, and the lowest pane of glass is just the right height for my grandson to peer out of. Well, one day he was doing just that when his mommy said, “Honey, don’t touch that window. Baba will have to clean it.” To which I answered, “Oh honey, let him go. It’s no biggie…that’s what window cleaner is for.”
BAM!! The Spirit had driven home His point. But not before I actually had the nerve to begin to argue with Him. Here’s how that went.
Me: Yeah, I know I have some window cleaner to ease my job of cleaning windows, but why can’t kids keep their hands off the windows?
The Spirit: Did Cayden keep his hands off your windows?
Me: No, but that’s different.
The Spirit: Why is that different?
Me: Because I love Cayden, and it brings me joy to clean up after him.
The Spirit: Hmmm…aren’t you supposed to love these people too?
Me: …………… (That’s me being struck silent.)
Just a day or so ago, I had read a quote by Francis Chan that said,“Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it’s about loving God and loving the people He has made.”
PAUSE TO PONDER. So how is it that the “reminder” God placed in my path –to love Him and love others– lost its impact when I was faced with the opportunity to live it out? How could I “read the text and yet fail the test?” Sigh. What came to mind was the words of Paul in Romans 7:21-25.
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good,
evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight
in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me,
waging war against the law of my mind and making me
a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me
from this body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
This was a sad, yet happy moment for me. Sad because I sinned by grumbling and being critical of others, failing I had failing by not selflessly serving and loving people. Yet happy because this circumstance had shown me once again that God loves me enough to speak to me through His Holy Spirit. I’m tellin’ ya people, I’d be totally undone without ongoing communion with my God.
Let me close here with this reassurance that He gave to me.
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me
through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Romans 7:25