If you were to look under my couch right now, you’d see nothing. No Lego, no dust bunnies, no dried orange peels where my son has stashed them. Because today was one of those days where I seemed to see all the out-of-the-way dirty places in my house. And I attacked!

With a frenzy that caused my two younger children to clear out and make a tent fortress (to keep them in or me out, I’m not sure), I vacuumed and scrubbed and knelt and stretched and groped about under furniture to get those last little bits of filth.

This is not a regular mindset or state of being for me. I don’t rigorously clean my house to perfection every day. My house holds not only me but four other people, at least half of whom are big picture rather than detail cleaners. I long for little house fairies who owe me a huge favour to come into my house and clean it nightly to spotlessness.

And as I was scrubbing under my dishwasher I was thinking, “Who really cares? Who’s actually going to look under my dishwasher and judge me for it?”. But I knew. Once I had seen the dirt, I couldn’t ignore it.

Spiritually we all have our dirt. Dirt that nobody sees or suspects. 

But we know.

We know those places in our lives, those dark and dingy places that if ever saw the light of day would be our undoing.

And we’re good at hiding the dirt. Just like I scoot crumbs under my kitchen counter with my foot as I prepare tea for friends, I deflect attention from my spiritual weaknesses.

But these hidden sins aren’t hidden from God.

God, with his all-knowing and all loving eye, sees our mess. He sees the crumbs of failure, the stains of addiction, the smears of hypocrisy.

And he doesn’t condemn us. What he offers to do is shed light into those dark, dirty places. He offers to uncover the mess and stand beside us as we acknowledge this hidden world of ours.

And he offers cleanness. He offers to take that cherished and hated mess and wipe it clean, bring us to better than new.

King David knew secret sin. He knew what it meant to try to hide the mess only to have it come to light.

But he also knew his God. He knew that by confessing his sin and bringing it before God he could begin the journey to health and wholeness.

“Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin…
Purify me from my sins,[c] and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:1-2, 7

Others may not see this deep cleaning that’s going on inside of you but they may sense something’s different. Just like people may not know I vacuumed under my couch but to me the house feels different. There is a different feel in the air. Just like throwing open the windows after a spring cleaning the fresh breeze of God’s Spirit and work in your life will be tangible.

And once you start this deep spiritual cleaning it’s very hard to stop. We start to see other places that need God’s hand and we want them clean too.

Then all of a sudden you look up and realize that you’ve been gradually going through a spiritual cleaning spree.

Life feels different because God’s hand is at work. We start to feel that restored joy and willing spirit that David spoke about (Psalm 51:12).

And the dark deep down dirty places become stories we tell about God’s work in our lives, not places of hidden shame.