“Life is like dirty dishes. The sooner you deal with the junk the easier it is to clean.”
Loren Thornburg
Doing dishes is one of those parts of life that we have to keep doing over and over. As long as we keep eating we are going to have to keep cleaning. One thing I have found that makes it easier is cleaning sooner rather than later. The longer the dish sits there with the junk on it the harder it becomes to clean and the more energy and time it takes to get it clean later. I see that things in life are like this as well. The sooner we can address the junk the better. Whether that be relational conflict, lies we believe, or illnesses we face, still it remains true that if we can catch these things early on they will have less time to develop and therefore be easier to address and resolve. The more we let them harden the harder they become to overcome. Lets get it early...and not just the dishes.
“Disciples so often get into trouble; still, God is there every time.”
Psalm 34:19 MSG
The message has never been, ‘don’t get dirty,’ but rather, ‘don’t stay dirty.’ God never expected us to be perfect. He, more than anyone, knows our sinful nature and our weaknesses. He is the One who formed us and made us and He knows how dirty we’ve been and how prone to get dirty we still are. Dishes that we use can’t help but get dirty, but they can still stay clean as long as the junk is continually removed. It’s easier to remove if too much time doesn’t pass in between. So often we hide our junk and dirt thinking God is ashamed of it and of us. Yet, the contrary is true. He loves us with our junk; He expects us to get dirty; and He is there with us in the midst of it, dirt and all. He more than anyone can make us clean, no matter how many years or layers of junk we find ourselves beneath. He can make us more than clean, He can make us new. So why wait...the sooner the better.
