Cleaning shiny floors.

I was wandering through wal-mart this morning at 3am looking for garage sale signs. This weekend will be my 3rd and final garage sale before the move. *phew*

But as any typical wal-mart shopper knows, instead of dodging busy people chatting on their cell phones while they distractedly push a buggy, or unstable 6 yr old buggy drivers and the elderly woman with her motorized cart who has parked herself right in front of the bread you need, 3am shopping is filled with random treks around large piles of boxes, dodging cleaning crews, and aisles that are just plain inaccessible because as staff restock the shelves they've scattered boxes and junk all down the aisle.

This morning was no different.

As I walked across an open expanse of floor, there was an older gentleman pushing a floor buffer back and forth across the floor. I looked at where he'd been and noticed how shiny the floors were and mentally gave him a thumbs up.

But then I looked down at the floor around my feet and noticed that, even though he had yet to come buff this area, it was very shiny as well. I realized, with a wide visual sweep of the whole floor that you really couldn't tell where he had been this morning and where he hadn't been. I considered how big a waste of time this was shining shiny floors.

When I realized that Wal-Mart doesn't want it's floors to be dull.

Ever.

(Go ahead and insert your own negative Wal-Mart comment here, I understand. I'm just applying this lesson to what I saw this morning)

Wal-Mart doesn't wait until it's floors are dull to shine them. They shine them. Even when they're shiny. To keep them shiny.

And I wondered if I am that diligent with my own soul. A life of repentance, cleaning my heart and my motives tends to wait sometimes until I do something really bad or really hurtful to someone.
Cries like "Purify my heart God" tend to come after I've had a really hateful comment run through my mind, or my attitude begins to get the best of me.

But, I can learn a lesson from Wal-Mart. (Who knew?)
Those cries for purity of heart, of mind, of soul should be pouring out when those parts of me aren't struggling with sin. when my mind is joyful and my soul is worshipful and my heart is innocent of any evil motives and thought - so I don't wait until my heart is scuffed up with sin before I start the cleaning process again.

But that I'll shine those things up even when they look shiny and clean and pure. So that I will always be a visible witness of what God can do to a heart. My heart need never look scuffed up again. Because I need always be buffing.

And maybe I won't be able to tell I've done anything after those prayers, maybe I won't be able to see and imagine that God is really doing anything as I pray purify my heart - because it doesn't seem like anything has changed. But things aren't always as they seem.

I really like this lesson. But, it could be because it's now 4am and I've done gone goofy.

Have a good weekend. :)