What's Your Dirty Counter-top?

About two weeks ago I recreated our counter-top (I gave it a face lift) in a faux granite look. I love it. Over the weekend, I was given five baskets of tomatoes. What a blessing!! So I made spaghetti sauce. Do you know it’s very hard to make spaghetti sauce without making a mess? It is, trust me on this. This morning as I was making coffee I decided to wipe off the counter-top. It didn't look too dirty, so it wouldn't take too long, right? Wrong!!! As I started cleaning, I noticed that the counter-top was filthy even though it didn't look dirty at all. I was congratulating myself on choosing colors that would hide the dirt well, then suddenly I stopped and laughed at myself. Did I really want the dirt to be hidden? Of course not!! I want The counter-top to BE clean mot just appear to be clean. I thought of when Jesus called the Pharisees whitewashed tombs. What he was saying is that, although they looked clean, they were grubby and full of rotting, disgusting stuff. Then I thought about how many of us do the same thing in our life. We can say and do the right things and appear clean until a car cuts us off, someone at work irritates us, or things don’t go the way we want and we instinctively act in another manner. In fact, even IF we, by some stroke of luck, hide the dirt and no one realizes we are dirty, There is still one who knows about the dirt... God. Imagine that you came to my house and you saw the counter-top; you might think it was clean, but I would know the truth. I would know it was grimy even if you never knew. Fact!! Everybody has a dirty counter-top; sometimes I have more than one. Often, in our Christian life, we would prefer to cover up the sin rather than confess it. We think that somehow it will go away or if we can't see it, it doesn't exist. What we really need is to admit the sin, dirt, and then clean it. Errrr… have God clean it. God isn't interested in hiding the dirt, of our lives. He wants to change us and make us sparkling. Hiding the sin in our lives won't make it go away, the absolute, only way to make the sin go away is to confess it. In the same way, it is better to clean the counter-top and remove the dirt rather than hide it. because the dirt won't go away by itself. What's your dirty counter-top?

Comments

Live Fearlessly

As I was driving home today, I passed a person walking on the side of the road. Since it was cold, and snowy, I thought I should stop and offer the person a ride. As I drove on by, I was irritated with myself for not stopping. I could have and should have but I didn't. Why? I was scared! Maybe that wouldn't bother you, but I'm willing to bet there are things that make you afraid. It may be snakes or spiders that send the ticker into overdrive. Or maybe it's your job and finances that keep you up at night when you should be resting. Then again perhaps it's relationships that consume your thoughts and energy. As followers of God, we know that we are told not to be afraid. Yet we often are afraid despite everything we know. As I was driving away from a missed opportunity, I began thinking about what it is that makes us afraid. I honestly am not sure what it is that causes us to be afraid when we should be bold, but I

Tragedy: A Christian Response

I want to start by telling you a story. We were new parents. When Our oldest, a son, was about eighteen to twenty months we had another baby, a girl with brown hair and huge eyes. One day as I went to feed her, my son who may have been two at the time wandered off to another part of the house. The next thing I heard was a thud. I grabbed my baby girl and ran to see what happened. There was my son with a table on top of him. He had pulled it over on himself and more blood than I had ever seen was running all over. We put him in the car and dashed for the ER. It was not a fun trip. He had a skull fracture and many stitches. Fast forward about fourteen or fifteen years, I’m at a stop light and watch my youngest daughter about ten start across a street on a bike start across a street just as a truck comes around a corner into the path of the bike. She hit the side of the truck and bounced onto the road. I grabbed her up and checked her over there were no injuries, but

Just A Word of Praise!!

On Sunday, after church, we went to a town about thirty minutes away. On the way we drove through an area where they were working on the road. It was no big deal. We had lunch, bought some food for the week, and drove back home. Later, as we were on our way to church for the evening service, I heard the ominous flapping sound that a tire makes when it’s flat. Yikes! I pulled over and while I was debating how I was going to change a tire. A car coming in the opposite direction drove by and stopped. As the driver appeared from the vehicle, I recognized him as a neighbor and fellow believer. He approached the car, and asked if I had an air compressor to inflate the tire. My answer, “Yes, but I’m not sure how good it is. I’ve never actually managed to inflate a tire using it. I may not be using it properly.” I produced it from the trunk of the car and handed it to him. Within a few minutes, he had it hooked up and running. As it turned out, I was using it properly,

Inspirations

Search This Blog