Cleaning the floors...

          I was on my hands and knees washing my floor one day and I began to see a bit of symbolism in it all.  You see when I stood up and just looked down at the floor, it looked like it needed to be swept.  But when I knelt down and took a closer look it needed more than that.  So I went and broke out the Pinesol and a rag.  Still when I began cleaning I realized that it had been a while since I had been down on my knees doing this and it needed even more than that.  So I went and got the scrub brush and had at it.  The bristles from the brush got into nooks and crannies that the rag couldn't.  And from a close view I could really see the difference.  But it took a lot of time and a lot of elbow grease.  When I stood up, the floor didn't look all that much better to me.  Strange.  I know that it was much cleaner but from where I was standing it didn't seemed to have as big a difference as I thought.  But then my wife came down and saw the floor and said, "Oh my wonderful husband, dearest to my heart, how wonderfully miraculous this floor looks.  You can really see a big difference."  (My memory isn't so great so that may not be an exact quote.)  The point is that apparently from seeing the floor everyday over time I numbed to its appearance and had forgotten how clean clean looked.  But a different set of eyes that were tuned into that saw it immediately.

            That is how it is with us and our spiritual lives.  If we don't get down on our knees and really clean out the nooks and crannies of ourselves we will not see how dusty things really are.  We can't just expect that a sweeping every once and a while will do.  And to just wipe away the obvious dirt will not do it either.  We need to search our hearts and see where they have hardened.  To what things have we become callused?  And just as I still didn't notice the difference after I stood up, we can not assume that because we don't see it that it isn't there.  More importantly, we can't assume that because we don't see a difference that no one else will.   Temples swept clean, that's what we are called to be.  So the next time you are cleaning the floors (I realized that this may be a very, very long time for some of us) take some time to do some spiritual spring cleaning. 

May your knees be bruised in prayer

And your knuckles ache from folded hands.

SDG