Lenten Cleaning Redeux

My Lenten Cleaning has now morphed into something quite different from my initial expectations. Having just finished the kitchen last week, I will now "remain" in the kitchen for quite some time. The water leak was repaired, but has left us with two holes in the drywall, warping floors, and a really icky stench.

Our home is habitable (Praise God!) and we will manage, but this wasn't the way I envisioned my Lent.

But then, is it ever?

Things were removed from the kitchen and placed in bins that are now stacked in our Master Bedroom, partially blocking pathways to the bathroom and around the bed. In the middle of the night, when I wake to change Pearl and re-settle her I must be very careful as I make my way through the maze in the dark.

How very much this is like my spiritual life...

I "clean" out one area and deem it fresh and new and cheery. A situation happens that brings things to light that I didn't know were still there, in the back, not even seen the first time.

So I pulled all the stuff from a corner cabinet, that became a catch all. Mostly good stuff: napkins, cups, plates, our blender. But then I pulled out things that could really get purged: canisters that I've never used in almost 4 years of marriage, multiples and multiples of tongs and pastry brushes.

All of it got hauled out and put on display in the Bedroom so that this week I could really go through it and decide what needs to be culled. And then when the walls get repaired and the floors redone, I will air out the house and scrub the floors.

The Lord uses the everyday experiences to speak great volumes in my heart.

"Ok Lord, what has been hiding in the back corners of my heart? Let's bring it all out in the open and really look at it and decide what needs to get pruned and burned and what can stay. Lord, would you please spruce me up?"