So I woke up yesterday and hopped in my car to head to work. As is my morning routine, I like to roll down the window and feel the cool air hitting my face, but to my surprise, the air wasn't cool... it was downright comfortable. This lead me to think of 1 thing.... SPRING! And that made me think of another thing....Cleaning.

Now I'm not a super messy person (most times), but about once a year I like to do a serious cleaning of the my office and the youth areas here at church, and yesterday was that day. Throughout the day I was reminded of God and his love for me....and all because I was cleaning. I'd like to share some of those moments with you... I'm sure when you get down to it, you'll be able to relate.

So anyone who knows me knows that the youth closet is always my messiest space...mainly because no one really uses it except me, and its basically a glorified pop storage room. But in reality there was just so much junk in there! Arts and crafts supplies, pop boxes, big containers of stuff... i mean, for real, there was tons of junk. Now this junk needed to get gone... and fast. But as I was going through the process of de-junkifying the closet, I though about God.  I sat back, throwing anything that i didnt see as useful away, really without a whole lot of thought, and then it hit me... I am this junk. I mean think about it, I'm probably the one who put the junk there, which means i procured it somehow. So I was the junk. In reality, I am junk everyday. If I were God, I would see me as pretty useless sometimes. I go through my days, sometimes I listen to God and what he wants for me, and sometimes I don't.... I'm pretty sure that its more often that I dont. But if I were God, I would just pick me up, put my in a bag, and throw me away...and without a thought! But God, in his amazing love sees all of us as useful, even when we choose not to be.

Check this verse out from Romans 8:

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Even when we sit back and mess up our lives, Christ loves us. He loves us so much he died for us... and that hit me yesterday.The other thing that reminded me of God also came from my time cleaning out the youth closet. A few years back when we took our annual trip to Minnesota to work with the Inger kids, we brought with a few bags of cement to make stepping stones for the kids. What a great time! However, we didnt use one bag and when we got back to church I put it in the youth closet. Now somewhere along the line, this big ol' bag of cement split open... now I dont know if you have ever had the pleasure of cleaning up an 85lb bag of cement, but if anyone ever offers to let you help, do the following:
1. take a deep breath
2. make sure you have on running shoes
3. (and this is important) RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!

The problem with cleaning up cement is that it never all gets cleaned up. There always is this little powder stuff that hangs out as a reminder that there was once a big pile of cement on the floor.

Now I know what you're thinking... Sean, Cement has nothing to do with God.... and you know what, you're probably right... but you know what does?

A Mop

I thought to myself, i should get a mop and clean this stupid powder up... that would make the floor look super good. And it occurred to me that God and i both like to make things clean.

God didn't use a mop, but he washed us. When we were baptized, it was like God took a mop to our sins. With that water, all of our sins were washed away.

As smart, old timey Theological types put it :
" In Baptism, the old Adam is drowned and the new Adam is born"

That old Adam they talk about is our sin.

We. Sin. A LOT.

All of us do, I do, you do, even ( and get this) Pastor does.

But through baptism, we are washed clean in Christ. Through his blood we are made as white as freshly fallen snow. ( uh oh...lets not say this "S" word)

So remember, we can be junk sometimes, but because of Christ, we are washed clean and seen as totally useful in God's eyes....


See.... Cleaning is a good thing kids!

Now listen to your parents and go clean your room.