The Never-ending Job of Dusting...

Growing up, I loved allowance day. I didn't really love the things I had to do to get my allowance, but it sure payed off when I received my "paycheck." I was the youngest, so when it came to cleaning house, I didn't get to choose the job I did. I got stuck with the job(s) that no one else wanted...which was always cleaning the bathroom (hated it...) and dusting (hated it too...). To me it was not fair that one of my sister did the dishes and the other vaccumed. Those were so easy compared to my very very tough jobs that I inherited. I often fussed about it. As you can probably guess, it didn't change anything. I was stuck with the job and there was nothing that could change it. I had issues with these jobs. Bathrooms are just...well...bathrooms. Gross. And with dusting, I hated having to move everything. I must confess that most of the time I just dusted around it all. :)

Growing up in an AZ copper mining town, dust was a huge problem. We lived a few miles away from the actual town where we went to school. Our house was much closer to the mine than the houses in town, so the dust was a much worse problem for us and our neighbors. Here is the picture of our mine...you must be very very interested at this point! It is oh so beautiful!

I remember thinking as I faithfully dusted each week, "I don't know why I'm doing this..it's just going to be dusty again in a few hours....it's pointless." Yes, I grumbled about it often. Now that I think back, I wonder how much dirt was in my lungs from living there for so many years... it can't be worse than smoking though, right?

When I read the verse in Isaiah 52:2 "Shake off your dust; rise up..." certain thoughts of dust fill my mind. I am very familiar with it! I am an expert at dusting! But what I am not an expert at yet, is shaking and cleaning the dust off of my own heart. I think there will always be times and seasons where we don't feel as close to the Lord as we want to and our intimacy with the Lord seems to have become a bit dusty. Whether it's because of discouragement, busyness, or just plain boredom, I think we can all say that we have experienced the season of having a "dusty" heart. The scripture does not condemn us, but it does tell us what to do in that season. Shake it off! Rise up! We may be in a place where we feel far away (of which there is nothing worse), but we don't have to stay there. We can choose to shake it off by doing spiritual disciplines even when it's the last thing we want to do. It may not change in an hour or a day, but sooner or later, our hearts will begin to be in that close place with the Lord again that it once was.

Sometimes, just like when I was younger, I don't like dusting. It's a different kind of dusting (although I DO dust my house still), but it still requires a constant watching over our hearts and making sure the dust doesn't pile up too high. But if it does, you don't have to be condemned -- just shake it off, rise up, and just keep going no matter what life throws at you... Besides that, we aren't dusting for nothing! We have a wonderful allowance and inheritance that is awaiting us...Jesus -- whose reward is getting to spend eternity with us.