I guess you know you're officially
"growing up" when you get excited about household cleaning items.
Some of you will know what I mean. I've always been a neat freak,
and shoes will be better and cooler than coffee tables and Swiffers any day,
but sometimes you just get a really neat toy that can be used in everyday life
and it's cool.
That's why I was so excited about
finding this super nice vacuum cleaner on sale during Black Friday like two or
three years ago. I had a roommate at the time, and she had one already, but I
couldn't pass up such a good deal! Besides, we wouldn't be living together
forever, and I knew I would need my own someday anyway. So of course I bought
it! And I put that sucker together myself. There's something satisfying
about taking a bunch of parts, putting them together and seeing your hard work
pay off. (Okay, so I had to undo and redo a few things, but what does that
matter? It works now!)
Fast forward to May 2014. I kept my
handy dandy vacuum cleaner in every house I had. Actually, after I got out of
Little Rock, I only lived one place before we bought our house. So I used that
vacuum cleaner a couple of times in Little Rock, and then it moved to the town
house with me. There was only carpet in the living room and upstairs in the
bedrooms (but you better believe I didn't haul that thing up the stairs very
often) so I vacuumed downstairs quite a bit.
I'm going somewhere with this, I
really am.
So I noticed that the last few
times I used my vacuum cleaner at the town house, it wasn't working very well,
and it wasn't working well at the new house either. Ugh. This was my
first vacuum cleaner, mind you. I had no idea how long the things were
supposed to last! Thus, I thought the thing was the biggest piece of junk
that I'd ever purchased in a Black Friday sale (and, ask Cory, I've bought a
lot of junk). I didn't know how long it should last, but I knew it was
longer than a year and a half!! Hello. Even a newbie knows that. A few
days ago I mentioned that I need to buy a new one. Leave it to my
perfectly handy husband to ask if I'd ever changed the filter. The
what? I guess my roots are about to show, but hey. So what if I
didn't know that maybe my vacuum wasn't a piece of junk and that maybe it just
needed a new filter?! This morning before church, I took the thing apart to
find out what kind of filter it needed. While I was doing so, Cory came
and took a look at the filter I had had in the thing for the last.. uhh.. since
I bought it. It was filthy. He said, "Yeah, I think that one
is done."
No kidding. It probably
didn't pick up any dirt the last five times I vacuumed.
The whole point I've been working
toward. Imagine God creating this top of the line, one of a kind person.
He saw what He made and it was good; He was satisfied. He created
this thing that He was proud of and that He liked.
Then it stopped working right.
It stopped picking things up; it started slacking. He's looking
down and thinking, "Why don't you know you need to get a new filter?
Why can't you start over again?" He is disappointed that his "vacuum
cleaner," so to speak, isn't working the way it's supposed to! God has
given us so many "things to do." My vacuum cleaner has one job:
to get my carpet clean. We, however, have been commanded to do many
things: to love our enemies, heal the broken, be patient, pray
without ceasing, give to those in need, witness. The list goes on.
I was so upset that I got such a good deal on that vacuum cleaner and
then it stopped working right. I had no idea that it was my fault it
wasn't working!
Sometimes we don't realize that we aren't working;
we may be doing things, but are we working? Are we sharing hope, giving the
good news of salvation? God knew that he would have to send his son, Jesus, who
He loved so, so much, to die a horrible death to save all of mankind. But
after that.. after he died, He conquered death and He rose again and He loves
you and me. Not everyone knows that. Not everyone cares. But
with that in mind, I hope I won't be too "busy" to
actually do work.
I put the new filter on that bad
boy, and it went to work. It picked up an insane amount of dust and dirt
(told you it wasn't working before. Ew!) and I couldn't be happier that I don't
have to buy a whole new vacuum cleaner.
Maybe it's just time to ask God for
a new filter for yourself. You may be surprised at the amount of work
that actually gets done!
