Who would have thought that cleaning the bathrooms at school would
have turned out to be such a powerful experience. First, I was
cleaning them since the school was expecting some visitors from the
capital who were coming to do a preliminary check in on us in our
process to become recognized by the Dominican government as an
official school. They are very important people for us. So,
everyone was scrambling preparing for their arrival.
The bathrooms are cleaned everyday, but not deeply cleaned. So,
there I was sweating in the little bathrooms giving them a clean my
Mom herself would have been both surprised and proud. What was sweet
about it is was that throughout the the process students and teachers
were asking how they could help. We were all in this together. :)
I now invite everyone of you to come and check out the cleanliness of
our bathrooms!
While I was thinking about inviting these ladies into every part
of our school—our records, our kitchen, our yard, each classroom,
our planbooks, our bathrooms, I was thinking about if I could invite
them or anyone else into the corners and closed places of my heart.
Would God be welcomed into those places? I put on heels and lipstick
to greet these ladies (those who know me know this is a huge effort
on my part—not something I do for just anyone!).....do I do any
sort of preparation to welcome God?
Some verses that came to my mind and heart are Psalm 51:10. David
asks God to create in him a clean heart. I had to scrub some parts
of those toilets...like, really scrub. Some of that grime has been
there for a long time. Just like the grime on my heart. Scrub,
Father, to make it clean and holy.
If those stains are going to fade, I would need to take captive
every thought and make them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
I have always loved how clear it is that this is hard work. Taking
something captive is not an easy task—have you ever wrestled with a
baby to get a diaper on in the Caribbean with no fan on you? I have
and it is a sweat-inducing event. It is that caliber of effort that
must be made to keep those thoughts in line.
The thing is that so powerful about thoughts is that, as James so
vividly describes in chapter 1, that those thoughts once conceived,
grow and then are birthed to sin. As a mom who has birthed a few
people, this really brings the idea home of the gravity of letting
unhelpful thoughts go wild. Remember, too, that once the idea is
birthed it will need diaper changes and then let the wrestling begin!
There are two other ideas that God reminded me of during Operation
Clean Up For The Important Ladies. One was that it this not a sprint
and the other is that I am not created to do this alone. Nope, I
don't have any cute stories about how I have run a marathon, please!
I am just saying that it isn't a few minutes of mediation and then
I'm good to go. It is a changing of the culture of my own mind and
surrendering to Christ and God, in His goodness, has called us into a
community to help us in the process.
So, I thank God for the chance to be so reminded of my need to
dust out some of the corners of my heart so that I may freely welcome
God and others there. Good cleaning takes scrubbing and holy
thinking takes wrestling with my thoughts to surrender them to
Christ. Not doing this and my thoughts can get out of control and
grow into something that is much harder to manage. Also, that the
process is long, but not a solo task. God has given me His Holy
Spirit, His Word and many wonderful people in my life.
And, for your information, I am about to go for a walk, so maybe
in the future, there will be a blog about a marathon....but it may go
like this, “So, I have a friend who just finished a marathon.”
:)
As always, if you are able to support us in our work here with
Makarios, we would be very grateful. We are still looking to be
fully supported for next year. If 100 people were to give $25 a
month, we would be fully funded. Could you be one of those people?
(We would also happily accept one time gifts or monthly gifts of more
than $25 also) :) https://makarios.webconnex.com/missionary
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