the smell...

Its totally parable worthy...

There was something NOT COOL "living" in one of my kitchen drawers....honestly, it was making my WHOLE apartment smell, which makes sense since i have lived here for a MONTH...and its probably lived there a LOT longer than THAT....but, anyway, I got ride of the source of the smell..and I've opened the window in the kitchen...I've even stuck a fan right up against the window to encourage the 'bad air to move out'....but you know, I STILL feel like my apartment smells bad...the smell is probably sticking to things....and it will be a few days before its totally and completely gone. ( meeeh! how awful!!!)

I feel like sometimes when we do Spiritual housecleaning in our lives we really expect an IMMEDIATE difference...and yes, there definitely IS ( I mean, the smell is far less offensive)...but I think we often forget about the importance of the 'airing out' and the 'cleaning products' and all the other things we must do BESIDES just do the "getting rid" of the problem.

Ah, the important of daily maintance in my relationship with Christ!

As I write this I am reminded of an email I got this past weekend, which turns the analogy in another direction...and I will pause to pull it up for you and do some quoting...

When you have to turn to God, just to make yourself get up in the morning, then you know, deep down really know, how important God is in your life. When my life is running smoothly, when I think I have everything under control, that is when my quiet times start to slip, that is when God starts to slide to the sidelines. Sure I talk to him and tell him about my day, but I don't sit on the floor praying with all my heart that He will help me, because I can't do it by myself. Loving God with all our body, mind, soul and strength, is not something that comes out of the sunny days.
God always equips us with what we need to face things, when we need it. He trains us up, perfecting us day after day after day. What if God needed to prepare us for something that is coming? What if we needed to pick up our game for something ahead? He needs to train us, to build up our spiritual muscles. Adversity in whatever form is how you do this.

I loved this! And it gave me a different perspective of my current pain...and it also gave me a new perspective on some of my dear friends situations that THEY are facing at the moment...the hard stuff...the smelly stuff...its driving us to pull out the ultra cleaning products, to open up our windows....to REALLY start taking account of our Lives...to Seek that which will truly make us Clean.