Cleaning House
I'm not sure I've ever seen such a mess in my entire life.
Moving in is a messy business, especially when you've been gone for three months during the most dusty time of the entire year. I tried to cover up all the furniture before I left in October of last year, but the corners of the couches were still exposed, leaving a very visible brown line were the dust had settled. Wipe your finger across any surface, and you can write your name. Don't even mention the window sills, where the curtains has created some kind of vacuum that caused the dust to accumulate like snow. You might not think dust has a smell, but it does, and all it takes is one sweep of the broom across the concrete floor to lift it up into the air like confetti, dancing in the beams of light coming through the windows.
And just when you get it all cleaned up, that's when the new refrigerator arrives and the installation crew tracks a new layer of dust and dirt into the living room. So you sweep again, just in time for the electrician to come and move your air conditioner by drilling a giant hole in the concrete wall that sends little bits of concrete flying all over the house. Just when you think you've cleaned all that up, you move one piece of furniture that surely isn't that dirty, only to discover where all the lizards have been hiding out and pooping for the last three months. And when you pull out a clean bathroom towel from the linen closet, you pull out a layer of dead bugs and lizard poop that hit the floor like you just dropped a full bag of open skittles. After that is clean, you take your eyes off the ground for the first time and realize just how many spider webs have accumulated in every corner of the house and in every nook and cranny. It's especially nice when they leave little egg balls in their webs that burst open and send little baby spiders running everywhere as you are trying to clean.
Finally, you lay down at night to ease your thoughts with some mindless activity, say, watching Harry Potter, particularly the episode with the giant spiders. When you close your laptop after it's over, you put one foot on the floor and notice an unrealistically large spider that suddenly grows in your mind to the size of Harry Potter land, and you wonder how many more are out there.
But this is nothing compared to our teammates, who have a whole set of their own house problems. For example, while we have lizards living and pooping in our house, they have a worse alternative: mice. These mice have been "playing house" in all of Micah's toys, leaving evidence of their feasting and excreting in her playmobiles, stuffed animals, and clothing drawers.
When they moved her bed, they found the source of a strange stink in the room - a lovely, crusty fungus about two feet in diameter that Suzanne accurately compared to a coral reef.
Now for the bathroom that they have been refurbishing this past week. For some unknown African reason, the workers decided to mix cement inside the house, which of course sent cement smoke billowing out from the hallway into the entire rest of the house. When my teammate opened her bedroom door to the surprise cement-mixing scene taking place in her home, she said even the black man looked like a ghost through the smoke. She and her whole family have been constantly sweeping, dusting, chloroxing, cleaning up...and laughing. You have to in order to stay sane. These are the times when we could roll our eyes or even hold back tears, but instead God gives us grace to be able to laugh and say, "This is Africa!"
Needless to say, with all this cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning...I'm still blowing brown boogers, and it's been over a week. Sorry, TMI.
The point is this: You have to make a mess before you can make a home. When the house hasn't been lived in for some time, cleaning and sprucing up has to take place in order for it to be livable again. And even livable houses needs renovation from time to time. We want our houses here in Burkina to be two things - a safe and happy home for us and a welcoming refuge for our friends and neighbors. Therefore, to make a ministry you have to first make a home, and to make a home, you have to first make a mess.
Is not the same true for us spiritually? Our lives and hearts are a spiritual home for God, and he is making his home in us. When he hasn't lived in the house for a while, there is a need for some deep dusting and cleaning, yet even livable houses need constant renovation and shaping up. It's messy work. He has to drill holes in the walls, expose hidden dust, shake the mouse poop out of the linens. But once he has settled in and made his home in us, true ministry can begin. And the longer he lives here in us, the more we appreciate his constant cleaning of our hearts.
Just like we have to make our homes here in Burkina safe and welcoming places, he has to make us into a safe and welcoming refuge for others. He works in our character and shapes who we are, which then overflows into our actions and our ministering to others. In other words, we can't truly welcome others in until he has made his home within us. It's all about hospitality; we welcome him in, and then he prepares the house to welcome others.
After this week of heavy cleaning and preparation, the house is finally ready. We feel at home. Everything has a place. Now we are ready to bring others inside and to begin focusing our efforts and energies on ministry. This doesn't mean the house will never need cleaning again. On the contrary, we clean a little bit every day, just like Jesus does with us.
As we have been preparing the house, we have also been preparing our hearts. Since this week was a designated rest week, we have not fully engaged in ministry but have instead been spending more time in God's Word, personal study and mediation, prayer, and reflection for this coming year. This is remarkably similar to cleaning house as we are preparing our hearts and laying the foundations of habits that should characterize this entire year of ministry.
The house is ready, so let the hospitality begin.
Moving in is a messy business, especially when you've been gone for three months during the most dusty time of the entire year. I tried to cover up all the furniture before I left in October of last year, but the corners of the couches were still exposed, leaving a very visible brown line were the dust had settled. Wipe your finger across any surface, and you can write your name. Don't even mention the window sills, where the curtains has created some kind of vacuum that caused the dust to accumulate like snow. You might not think dust has a smell, but it does, and all it takes is one sweep of the broom across the concrete floor to lift it up into the air like confetti, dancing in the beams of light coming through the windows.
And just when you get it all cleaned up, that's when the new refrigerator arrives and the installation crew tracks a new layer of dust and dirt into the living room. So you sweep again, just in time for the electrician to come and move your air conditioner by drilling a giant hole in the concrete wall that sends little bits of concrete flying all over the house. Just when you think you've cleaned all that up, you move one piece of furniture that surely isn't that dirty, only to discover where all the lizards have been hiding out and pooping for the last three months. And when you pull out a clean bathroom towel from the linen closet, you pull out a layer of dead bugs and lizard poop that hit the floor like you just dropped a full bag of open skittles. After that is clean, you take your eyes off the ground for the first time and realize just how many spider webs have accumulated in every corner of the house and in every nook and cranny. It's especially nice when they leave little egg balls in their webs that burst open and send little baby spiders running everywhere as you are trying to clean.
Finally, you lay down at night to ease your thoughts with some mindless activity, say, watching Harry Potter, particularly the episode with the giant spiders. When you close your laptop after it's over, you put one foot on the floor and notice an unrealistically large spider that suddenly grows in your mind to the size of Harry Potter land, and you wonder how many more are out there.
But this is nothing compared to our teammates, who have a whole set of their own house problems. For example, while we have lizards living and pooping in our house, they have a worse alternative: mice. These mice have been "playing house" in all of Micah's toys, leaving evidence of their feasting and excreting in her playmobiles, stuffed animals, and clothing drawers.
When they moved her bed, they found the source of a strange stink in the room - a lovely, crusty fungus about two feet in diameter that Suzanne accurately compared to a coral reef.
Now for the bathroom that they have been refurbishing this past week. For some unknown African reason, the workers decided to mix cement inside the house, which of course sent cement smoke billowing out from the hallway into the entire rest of the house. When my teammate opened her bedroom door to the surprise cement-mixing scene taking place in her home, she said even the black man looked like a ghost through the smoke. She and her whole family have been constantly sweeping, dusting, chloroxing, cleaning up...and laughing. You have to in order to stay sane. These are the times when we could roll our eyes or even hold back tears, but instead God gives us grace to be able to laugh and say, "This is Africa!"
Needless to say, with all this cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning...I'm still blowing brown boogers, and it's been over a week. Sorry, TMI.
The point is this: You have to make a mess before you can make a home. When the house hasn't been lived in for some time, cleaning and sprucing up has to take place in order for it to be livable again. And even livable houses needs renovation from time to time. We want our houses here in Burkina to be two things - a safe and happy home for us and a welcoming refuge for our friends and neighbors. Therefore, to make a ministry you have to first make a home, and to make a home, you have to first make a mess.
Is not the same true for us spiritually? Our lives and hearts are a spiritual home for God, and he is making his home in us. When he hasn't lived in the house for a while, there is a need for some deep dusting and cleaning, yet even livable houses need constant renovation and shaping up. It's messy work. He has to drill holes in the walls, expose hidden dust, shake the mouse poop out of the linens. But once he has settled in and made his home in us, true ministry can begin. And the longer he lives here in us, the more we appreciate his constant cleaning of our hearts.
Just like we have to make our homes here in Burkina safe and welcoming places, he has to make us into a safe and welcoming refuge for others. He works in our character and shapes who we are, which then overflows into our actions and our ministering to others. In other words, we can't truly welcome others in until he has made his home within us. It's all about hospitality; we welcome him in, and then he prepares the house to welcome others.
After this week of heavy cleaning and preparation, the house is finally ready. We feel at home. Everything has a place. Now we are ready to bring others inside and to begin focusing our efforts and energies on ministry. This doesn't mean the house will never need cleaning again. On the contrary, we clean a little bit every day, just like Jesus does with us.
As we have been preparing the house, we have also been preparing our hearts. Since this week was a designated rest week, we have not fully engaged in ministry but have instead been spending more time in God's Word, personal study and mediation, prayer, and reflection for this coming year. This is remarkably similar to cleaning house as we are preparing our hearts and laying the foundations of habits that should characterize this entire year of ministry.
The house is ready, so let the hospitality begin.
Comments
Post a Comment