Soapy Water

I don't know how many of you spend time doing dishes, but it's a chore I don't relish. I am bad to let my dishes sit a day or so, and then get tired of seeing them and do them. I just don't enjoy it, and would not do them at all if I didn't have to.

You see I spent a great deal of my time in college washing dishes to help pay for tuition and keep a roof over my and my spouse at the times head. It was a difficult time, but all I seem to remember from those days was dishes. Lots and lots of soapy water.

A few years ago God revealed to me that he was just like a dish washer. At the time I wrote a poem about it and shared it. I'll share it again after this post. You see if you have ever washed a dish a few days old, it's difficult to get the food out of it. It's crusty and hard, and you have to use a lot of soap and elbow grease to get rid of it.

Well we are just like a pot or pan in our life. We get crusty. We sin against God and it's there inside of us to be washed out. God wants us to come to Him! He wants us to be clean on the inside and out! He gives us a good scrubbing and tells us, go forth and sin no more. He puts elbow grease into us, to free us from our binding! Yet we go out and sometimes in the same moment, put more food on the inside of us.

Just like food, when we sin it comes inside of us and we need God to remove it. Just like food, if we continue to sin without God cleaning us, it sets up inside and begins to crust over. The longer we continue to sin, the harder it is for us to give it up. The more habit it becomes. The harder it has to be scrubbed.

The Holy Spirit is a lot like dish soap, God uses him to clean us. The Spirit soaks into the sin inside of us and loosens it's hold on us. It begins to be easier to scrub, and easier to get rid of. Our lives start to look more and more clean, and we continue to grow in Jesus. So if you have food in your pot, give it over to God to clean right now! Before it sits in and begins to cling, begins to harden and has to be scrubbed even harder. Sometimes the scrubbing hurts more than we can imagine. Sometimes God uses that sin to show us our error, and the cleaning process isn't pleasant. It's easier though, if you get to it right away, don't put it off until it's a part of your life. Don't put it off till your heart starts to harden, and refuses to let anyone clean it.


The greatest dishwasher of all

the dishwasher clogged up earlier.
I had to clean the trap out by hand
Slowly pulling pieces of lettuce, carrot, unidentifiable meats
All from water that I could not see through
A veil that kept my eyes from seeing what was going on
It reminded me of our daily lives
How they are so full of junk
Things that rot and fill our days
How we have so many things in this little trap in our mind
That we just don't let go of
A piece of a relationship here
A heartbreak there
Two strands of long forgotten lust

Then I realized that Jesus was just like that filter
in the bottom of my dishwasher
He filters out the filth, and holds it at bay
Sometimes it backs up and we just need to let it all go
So that he can keep washing us clean

From Authentic Perplexity, Copyright 2010