take out the trash

I like to keep a clean house. The truth is, it's my nature to be messy. But there's just something about coming home to a clean house, knowing everything is in its place. Did you know there's even a clean smell?

After being back in Germany for about two months, I realized I'd let my housecleaning fall by the wayside. All the excitement and busyness of beginning the new school year left me with little time to myself and even less time to devote to simple household tasks. I also realized that living in a filthy house was contributing to my stress.

So, I did something about it. I devoted an entire weekend to cleaning my house. Room by room, top to bottom. I sent the huge pile of cardboard, newspaper, and glass to the recyclinghof, and I scrubbed the trashcans. I wiped, sanitized, vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed, and mopped every surface of the house. I sang along to Relient K at the top of my lungs.

It was a lot of work, but in the end I was able to sit back and admire the fruits of my labor. On Monday morning, I reluctantly left my safe, clean haven and went back to school.

Then, it happened. I came home from school to find that my clean house had been dirtied. As I entered the front door, my eyes instantly fell on an ugly, mattess sitting in the hallway. An aroma not unlike a wet dog greeted my nose.

This hallway is often filled with clutter. Things to go to recyclinghof, things that have no "place," things that need put away. Mostly, junk. On my most recent cleaning spree, I finally managed to rid the hallway of all the junk. So you can imagine my joy when this little gem appeared in my hallway.

I'm getting rid of it, she said.

I just need someone to drive it to recyclinghof, she said a week later.

Over a month later, the ugly, smelly, trashy mattress is still here. Still stinking up the house. Still cluttering up the hallway. Yet oddly enough, I almost don't notice it anymore. Almost. It's hard to imagine that such an eyesore could go unseen, but the reality is that the mattress has become a permanent fixture in the hallway. If you squint and tilt your head to the side, it even looks normal. It matches the rug, and blends in with the wall.

This mattress reminds me of sin in my life. "Little" unacknowledged sins like jealousy, gluttony, and slothfulness. Sin is ugly, smelly, and trashy. It clutters up my life and frustrates me. But I can always find an excuse for keeping it around.

I'll figure it out tomorrow, I say.

I'm a victim of my circumstances, I say.

This is just who I am, I say.

But I have a choice. The longer I let sin sit around and fester in my life, the more natural and normal it seems. I become desensitized to the gravity of my sin, and I find more ways to justify myself. I don't notice the awful stench or the ugliness.

My sin becomes such a part of my everyday life that it doesn't even seem like sin anymore.

I must choose to actively weed out the sin in my life. Instead of just sitting around waiting for someone else to act, I have to make choices that honor God. I must train myself to recognize ugliness and dispose of it before it becomes normal.

I have to take out the trash.