A Fecal Garage

I woke up to the day after Christmas hangover.  You know the one - where trash and boxes and paper and little pieces to toys are still on your floor and still need to be picked up.  (Caveat:  would've been a lot worse had the Queen not directed us to make a couple of loads yesterday.  All hail the Organized One)

But I also woke up to something a little less pleasant.

Max the Dog had to sleep in the garage last night because although the day started at 70+ degrees, it finished in the low 30's.  I moved Max the Dog and the nice bed he sleeps on into the garage.  He's getting old now, and so a nice comfy bed in a nice warm garage is a good deal.

Until he poops on the floor.

And not just any poop, but the you-shouldn't-have-given-me-that-fatty-piece-of-leftover poop.

And so at 6-something this morning, I was hosing out my garage and using my hands on the broom's head to get the poop out.  Just what I wanted to be doing at 6-something when it's 30 degrees outside.

So as I'm thinking about Max the Dog and how much I love him (where's the sarcasm font?), that little voice rises inside of me.  He says something about how much fun this is to watch me doing this and how sometimes He enjoys doing that as much as I am enjoying it right now.

Because the truth is my garage is a little messy.  It could use some straightening.  But it also had (until this morning) some really gross, unhealthy, foul-smelling stuff in it.  That had to go too.  Can you imagine me picking up a few toys but leaving the feces?  The toys would be easier.  The toys would be cleaner.  The toys would show a quick improvement.

But they wouldn't deal with what really needed to be dealt with.

And so it goes with our hearts.  What are the little things that are easy to clean up in your heart?  Words to a spouse or child?  Not fudging an expense report at work?  Giving a little more on Sunday?

How about the really stinky, unhealthy things though?  Mismanaged (or unmanaged!) desires?  Jealousy?  Greed and materialism?  Those don't show near the improvement, take a lot more scrubbing, and are just plain gross to reckon with.  But they move the garage toward cleanliness, or in this case, the heart toward holiness.

One is easy to see, but the other is better to tackle.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...