Lessons from sweeping the floor at Chinatown (yes, we can learn from everything)

Wow, sweeping the floor at the Chinatown Buffet can really be a grueling task. First off, I always let it go too long, and before I know it, I see dirt, crumbs, scraps of paper, you name it, everywhere! So I quickly run and grab the broom before my boss and all the customers notice (hah, like they haven't by now?). Then I begin heartily sweeping. "This can't be too bad!" I think to myself, but soon I realise the task will take longer than I thought. What looked like a little surface dirt in some spots, (and it was at one time), has now been ground deep in the carpet. I can't just brush it away. I have to scrub it...hard! Then it seems that the cleaner I get it, the more dirt I find. Whew, will it ever be clean? Even as I clean, still more dirt gets tracked onto places that I just cleaned. Then I also have the distractions of people coming in and out of the doors, hindering me from the cleaning process. Wow, finally after some hard work, it's swept quite clean, and I can put the broom away...but only for a time. Soon, it will become dirty once again, so all I can do is be vigilant and clean the dirt spots sooner, before they become ground in next time.

OK, so why in the world did this crazy girl just talk about sweeping the Chinatown floor on her blog about spiritual warfare? Well, in case you hadn't noticed, it is almost identical to the process of wiping sin from our own lives. It is a continuous process. We will not reach perfection in this life. Does that mean we should just let it go and allow ourselves to wallow in our sin? Absolutely not! I keep the floor clean because I want to please my boss, and I want those who come in to have a good impression of the restaurant. If I just let the floor get and stay dirty, what would others think of the place, and would my boss be very happy with me when she asked me to keep it clean? It is the same in our spiritual lives. If we are content to leave our lives dirty in sin, what will others think of Christ when we are representing Him, and how will Christ feel when we disobey blatantly what He asked of us? And so many times we lose track of it, and don't notice the sins that have crept in until our lives are filthy, and our sin is clearly visible to others. That dirt that was so grounded into the carpet is like the sins that we just keep letting go until they get ground deeper and deeper into our being. And wow, aren't they the hardest to clean up? And then more sins continue to get tracked into our lives, even as we continue to clean. This is why we must always be vigilant and fighting the battle against sin. Oh, and those distractions, they always come, and many times we cannot avoid them. But all to often, we come back later to our battle against sin and find that more has come in during our time of distraction. Sometimes the distraction itself even leads us into sin. Finally, we reach those points where, no we are not perfect, but our heart is on the right track with God. Time to rest...but is it? Aren't these the times that we often fall asleep and the filth comes back worse than ever? We must be aware. These are the times we must gear up for the battle in prayer, reading God's word, and fellowshiping with other believers. We must be always vigilant in our battle against sin, lest our hearts become overrun with filth once again.

So ultimately, we will never be perfect, but we must strive for perfection by wiping sin from our lives in order to please the Captain of our faith and to set a good example representing Him to others. We must not slack off! Sin is nothing to play with. It is what hung Jesus on that cross, and made Him suffer, bleed, and die. Thankfully, He loved us enough to take our place. We must ask ourselves, do we love Him enough to take a stand, or will we push His suffering aside in vain and choose to live in the same filth that put Him to death?