The Dirt

At the War College we have Brengle Blessings, which are basically chores which allow us to bless our community with the discipline of doing them. Mine is vacuuming and sweeping the floors in the command center. Which I have to say is one of my least favorite things to do, it could be because of the summer I spent as a house keeper and I did it a lot sweeping and vacuuming.

Yesterday, while doing my chore I wanted to get it done fast and be on my way. While vacuuming I noticed that I had to go over it twice, maybe even three times for it to be efficiently cleaned. I got a little frustrated with this because I wanted it to be done, but I was patient and saw that it was important for me to do the job to the best of my ability. Once I was done vacuuming I had to sweep the floor in the War Room, which I really didn't want to do. The broom was so small and the room was so big, I felt discouraged from the start. I even thought about skipping it because the floor didn't look that bad, but I decided to do my job correctly and stop complaining. I than realized how much dirt was on the ground and that I actually did need to clean it.

I saw while cleaning how this is like the pain that we have. When I was vacuuming I wanted the room to be clean with one time, but I had to go back over it slowly and make sure that each thing was picked up. We always want so badly to be rid of the pain that we have in our life, we want freedom. We want it to be a quick fix, though because we are afraid that it will be more painful if we really get into it. I saw while I was sweeping the room that I thought was not dirty actually had a lot of dirt. It was hidden dirt and we as Christians at times hide our pain for various reasons.

In the DTES we see all this pain. The people on the streets wear the pain on the outside. We can see that they are in pain with each time they shoot-up or smoke crack or yell profanities at us. It is easy to see that they need help. I am now seeing that you can have pain that is harder to see. It will hurt just as bad as their pain, but some of us are better at hiding it, keeping it close to us.

We need to find freedom from this pain. God wants to replace your pain with Himself. He covers all offenses that you have done and that have been done against you. He endures all things. He can handle it and He wants to. He wants us to have peace. He wants us to be filled with joy and love. He wants us to be free from the lies.

Grace,
Meghan