Cleaning House

We are SO blessed to rent our little town home. The location is close to schools and everything we were used to having in Kansas. It’s bigger than the place we came from and has more than one powder room! Utilities are reasonable, someone else mows the grass and tends the landscaping, and our neighbors seem sweet. We were told that many people wanted to rent this place and we are sure God kept it just for us through connections with the seminary and church.

The interior is completely white. Yup, white.

Thankfully we love black, brown, and lots of earthy colors to give it some personality.
This place is also very new and very clean. I have come to learn that I prefer renting for one reason-it motivates me to be a more conscientious housekeeper.

Every week as I’m tidying things up I remember that this is not really our home. It doesn’t belong to us. Someone else’s name is on the deed. Someday when we move out they're going to want it to look as nice as it did for us.

When we owned a home back in Kansas it was easy to have differing levels of clean. “We’re crazy busy” “Good enough“ and “Company clean”. We also noticed that we could overlook a crack here, a squeaky something there, and tell ourselves we would get around to fixing it later. Since renting this town home Travis has already tightened our shower head, extended the guttering downspouts to help the foundation and installed a special kid friendly shower attachment upstairs!

An analogy to this began forming in my mind, between who I am in Christ now and before I was a Christian. Pre-salvation I felt like I belonged to myself. If I could live with a certain character flaw, make an excuse for a weakness, or put off improving some attitude I guessed that was okay. After being saved by grace through faith in Jesus the Bible tells me I am not my own. I was redeemed out of bondage to sin at the highest price-Jesus‘ life. It’s not about what I can “live with” anymore. It’s about Whose I am and Who I live for. At salvation Jesus made me clean and new. There’s a new standard of living for the environment of my heart.

So now when I stand on a chair to see if there is dust on top of the fridge, (yikes!) or I’m on my knees dusting the baseboards I used to overlook, (oy!) I’m reminded to ask God to search my heart and see if there is anything there, back in a corner where I might not usually look, that needs to be dealt with. His glory is worth it.

My house is never spotless, we live in it and mess it up every day! The work is never “done”. So too, my heart isn’t spotless either. I sin every day. But I want to be as diligent at watching my heart as I am at cleaning the house. And praise God, every day He is conforming me more to the image of His Son. One day in heaven that process will be complete.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
　
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6