Spring Cleaning for the Soul

I didn’t really get out of my sweat pants yesterday. Sweats are my favorite housecleaning attire so I stayed in them all day and did some “spring cleaning.” Yes . . . I know it’s the second week of October. Either I am an extremely put together woman who does her spring cleaning six months early. Or, I’m a desperate woman vowing not to shower until some long overdue cleaning takes place.

Not only did I dust the blinds and ceiling fans, but I also scrubbed the floors and vacuumed under the cushions on the couch. (I thought we had a rule about not eating in the living room . . . apparently it’s not so much a rule as a loosely worded suggestion.)

Although my belated spring cleaning took all day, I felt really good when it was done. There was something comforting in the fact that I could look around my home and see corners with no cobwebs and windows with no streaks. It’s the closest I’ve felt to warm and fuzzy in a long time.

The bad thing about deep cleaning though is the fact that no one else really notices when it’s done. They only tend to notice when it’s not done. No one else was aware that the dust bunnies under my sofa had been evicted or that the science experiment growing in the fridge had found a new home in the can at the curb.

As I spent all day deep cleaning my home I began to feel the need to do the same thing spiritually. Like my spring cleaning, I was long overdue in the clear out the trash department in my soul. So, as my hands went to work scrubbing and dusting, my mind went to work as well. I was reminded of David’s words in Psalm 139 where David made the following request of God: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

As I invited God to search my heart, I felt the cleansing begin. Together we scrubbed at some sin . . . we wiped out some worry and, perhaps most importantly, we went deep into some spaces that we hadn’t visited in a while. Although the spring cleaning of my soul was hard work, I felt good at the end of the day. Sin had been evicted and things growing in dark places had been kicked to the curb.

In 1 John 1:9 God promises that when we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Going to bed with a clean conscience was a great feeling . . . kinda like clean sheet night . . . only better. I wish every night were clean sheet night – both in my home and in my heart.