Sweeping in Circles

My kids love to help. With anything. No, they are not teenagers yet -- and yes, I realize this eagerness is not likely to last forever. One of our three-year-old’s favorite jobs is to sweep. The only problem is that he hasn’t caught on to the concept of sweeping all of the dirt and dog hair into a pile to scoop up and discard. Instead, he sweeps at random, pushing dust and sand around and around to new places on the floor. Perhaps he thinks he is doing the dirt a favor by giving it a new view in the room.

It occurred to me as I watched him that often I do the very same thing with the sin in my life. Instead of getting rid of it, often I just push it around with the broom, shifting it here and there to give it a slightly different look and perhaps make the room look a little better. But the dirt remains.

Many years ago I heard an illustration about sanctification. When the Holy Spirit moves into our hearts at our conversion, He moves into a filthy, dark house. Though He immediately floods the house with light, the house requires ongoing cleaning and renovation. Such is the process of sanctification -- when we first become Christians, the Lord in His grace does not make us aware of all of our sins and vices at once. Instead He patiently makes His way through the house, revealing bit by bit the issues we need to clean up and discard.

I realize that this is one of the many ‘already-not yet’ aspects of the gospel message.

“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified…” - Hebrews 10:14

We have already been perfected, but we are not yet completely sanctified… Let’s not waste our energy sweeping in circles.