Monday, 12/9/19 – Pressing on…

Squeaky Clean Just Feels So Good!

Believe it or not there was a time when I was quite healthy, loaded with energy, strong. I’d begin my days mid-morning, eat largely, hit the weights for two hours, go for a run, eat large again, hop a bus to work, wash pots and dishes 6 to 7 hours and then at 1 am, when city busses no longer ran, walk the two-hour trek home. The next day I’d do it all again and think nothing of it.

One summer I worked the most physically demanding job I ever held. I worked for a landscaping company, laying sod, digging and weeding flower gardens, laying stonework, mowing lawns and trimming hedges. Laying sod was to me the most rewarding task. At the start of the day we’d arrive at a townhouse community set on dusty soil and at the end of the day, after hours of heaving and shifting dirty rectangles of sod into perfectly formed blankets of green, leave it a lush and tidy community of watering lawns and smiling residents.

We worked long in those days—14 hours was common, following the sun. At the workplace by 7:30, onsite by 8. A 15 minute break midmorning, a forty-five minute lunch, and another 15 minutes mid-afternoon. I’d arrive home around 9 PM filthy, famished, and fatigued, bewildered as to which need to fill first: cleanliness, nourishment, or sleep. Somehow I’d find the strength to accomplish all three and by the next morning I’d be ready to go at it again.

Those “next mornings” were the best when they fell on a Sunday. On Sunday I was clean and could for the most part stay that way. There’s something particularly glorious about having done one’s necessary work, scrubbed oneself clean, filled ones belly with well earned food and refreshed one’s countenance with deep and satisfying sleep — Squeaky clean, and fit for the Master’s use.

This is in fact what our speaker this Sunday, Kurt Billard, urged upon us in our spiritual selves. Just as Mary and Joseph were found righteous (even while oblivious to the great plan and purpose which God had for them) so we should be found at all times, as Peter wrote “…prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Pet. 3:15). But we can’t do this authentically when we know all is not well with our soul.

Paul instructed Timothy “In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Tim. 2:20-21).

There’s nothing like a “squeaky clean” vessel to assure and encourage its use. Be one – it just feels so good!

Like those earthly guardians of our Lord you too may be astonished at just what God has planned for you.

More tomorrow…