God is allowing these present circumstances, this time of enforced isolation, as a chance for each of us to draw nearer to Him than ever before. I believe we are on the brink of the greatest revival the world has ever known, a time preceding the return of Jesus, an opportunity to participate in the Great Harvest of souls. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.Īnd there it is, God’s sanctification plan. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. James 4:8,10 reads, Come near to God, and He will come near to you. But the thoughts and attitudes of my heart weren’t quite so squeaky clean. Prideful, self-centered, me-first thoughts.Ĭoming back downstairs, my hands were washed easily enough, 30 seconds of scrubbing to the Happy Birthday song (Jesus Loves Me works, too). Less than charitable assessments of public figures and even family members. Hypocritical attitudes of my heart no one would likely ever guess were there. Remembrances of little hurts from childhood resentment towards those who had slighted me envy of others whose achievements may have eclipsed my own. And then there were the things that might one day come in handy, but we really hope to not have to use: a pair of crutches, a geriatric shower stall chair.Īs I plumbed the depths of dust and dirt, disgusted by this useless accumulation of oh-so-much junk, I began to think of the invisible debris cluttering the recesses of my mind. It was all lookin’ good.īut my meticulous Merry Maid-conscience nagged, “What about the attic?” So I grudgingly trudged upstairs to tackle ten years’ worth of detritus: such objects of obsolescence as VHS and cassette tapes mismatched, castoff kitchen utensils from our son’s college apartment random odds and ends flung into the nearest box in deadline-beating desperation when we moved ten years ago. So, baseboards and ceiling fans were dusted, closets purged, carpets steam cleaned, tile floors polished. Without the typical time constraints of years past, I came face to face with the unvarnished facts: I had no excuse to overlook ANYTHING. With the outbreak of Covid-19 and shelter-in-place orders, I decided to jumpstart my annual spring cleaning. So how do we get there? Come along with me. The psalmist David ranks a pure heart on par with clean hands, a dynamic duo that ushers God’s children into His holy place and assures us of His blessing. God’s word doesn’t stop with sanitized, even sanctified, hands. They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior. Psalm 24:3-5 says, Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. Yet this hyper focus on hand hygiene has transcended a purely physical orientation in me, evoking loftier thoughts of Scripture passages dealing with clean hands. Who knows but that one second short of the magic 30 might cause a crafty Covid-19 escapee to take up illegal residence? So I am doing my part to help prevent the spread, honoring guidelines set up by medical authorities.
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But a global pandemic leaves little margin for error. I thought I’d learned all I needed to know about hand washing in kindergarten.