Cleaning Dirty Mirrors Can Seem Impossible

When Josh and I were prepping for yesterday’s message, we needed to clean the mirror.

The beautiful floor-length mirror (thank you, Gary and Suzanne Heck, for the use of said mirror!) that we’ve been writing on for the past 3 weeks.

It had lots of “stuff” on it! The words from the past several messages . . .

Week 1:

My personal assessment and things I need to “revamp” . . . aka – Self-image, intentionality about my own relationship with God, fluffiness, and arms that look like Bratwursts.

Week 2:

The greatest life lessons are those we learn while in the wilderness.

Week 3:

Hitting the mark and what it looks like when we fall short. I drew a giant bullseye on the mirror and used a Nerf gun to try to “hit the mark.”

When we went to erase it, we had some really powerful/potent cleaners, compliments of Brad and Bryson Screen Cleaner. We did a quick few sprays and proceeded to wipe the writing off with paper towels.

The words and drawing were immediately gone from where they once were. But what we noticed is that we still had quite a mess.

The mirror was smeared, cloudy in spaces, and not at all ready for us to see clearly.

The cleaner was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. The tool we were using to wipe away the markers (the paper towel) was not picking it up. It was just smearing it from one side to the other. We needed a different kind of rag.

Life is a lot like that.

We experience so many things that shape us.

And while yes, positive life experiences shape and mold us, we would be foolish not to own that the difficult experiences, the “wilderness moments,” are typically the most transformational. Yet, to get to the transformation that occurs because of those moments, we have to “wipe ourselves clean.” We have to wipe off the “old” pain, anger, distrust, fear and be willing to see the “old vs. the new way.”

We have certain pieces and tools that help us make those steps towards transformation, but often we don’t have all that we need to finish taking those essential, key steps.

That’s where faith, prayer, scripture, and holy relationships come in.

We can do all the “wiping off” or revamping we want, but we end up with a smudgy, dirty mess unless we have ALL the essential parts and pieces.

It often does take multiple tries before we can get to that clean, transformed space.

We are now more than halfway through Lent . . .  we are on the “other side” leading to Easter.

Hopefully, we’ve all seen ways and spaces that needed to be adjusted so that we can be our best selves, looking like Jesus.

How are you doing in your personal “revamp?”

Are there areas that are difficult to clean? If so, let’s be even more intentional about doing so today!

 

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If you missed the Sunday message, here is a link.

The Old Way vs. The New Way