Vacuum Cleaners and Jesus.

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!