The Parable Of The House

Paul and I live with a certain amount of dirt in our house. We live 100 yards from a huge construction site, a train runs through our back yard, our house is 75 years old and it is summer time when I like to leave the doors open. Dirt is going to get in the house. Lots of it.

So, between our busy lives, our general dislike of cleaning, trying to spend as much time with friends and family before we leave as possible, and the fact that if we clean the dirt up today it is just going to be back tomorrow (like literally tomorrow), the battle isn’t very high on our priority list. We kind of just live with it.

Until Thursday night.

Thursday night I found out that my landlord would be coming by the house the next morning. I panicked. Literal stomach tightening physical shame and panic ran through my body. You see it’s okay for Paul and I to see the dirt, because we have decided that we are okay with it. I had intended to show the house to our landlord in a different condition.

So as I was trying to sort through my emotions, laundry and clean the floors I started asking myself why I was feeling this way. Paul and I are going to leave the house spotless and repair any wear and tear from the three years we lived here; so why does it bother me so much for my landlord to be coming on such short notice when there is no way for me to check off my to-do list?

God started whispering to me, and He showed me that I have been treating the house however I want and not really paying attention to what the owner might think. Now that I know he is coming though; I am very concerned with what the owner thinks. I realized I have been living in the house like it is mine and slacking off like it’s mine, but the reality is I should have been treating it better because it isn’t mine and I should have more respect for other people’s belongings.

That’s when God convicted me of the real lesson: it goes way beyond a house. I live with a certain level of dirt in my life, because it doesn’t bother me or I am too busy and lazy to clean it out. I tolerate these areas of dirt and mistakenly think it’s okay because its my life.

The truth is it isn’t my life; just the same way I don’t own this house. My life belongs to God. He created me. He is the provider and redeemer of all things in me and I need to treat my life better because it belongs to a king.

Continuing the adventure,

Jess