May 3

”Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus”… (Hebrew 12:1-2 NIV)

The slag from the mines had been swept up a few days earlier from the walking path. The asphalt was dry and clean. A few days earlier I saw people in colorful vests gathering up all the strewn refuse and covered by the winter snows. It was spring - a wonderful spring day, and I gloried in the green grass that had just begun to sprout. During the winter’s less active months, much refuse had been discarded and left behind; items that only a few months earlier were a necessity. The sand and gravel that now, following the spring’s arrival, made treading tedious, had been an absolute necessity for us earlier if taking a walk on the snow or icy path.

In our lives it maybe that we also need a spring cleaning, when we collect all the things we’ve picked up along the way – refuse that perhaps at one time was of some use but today only weighs us down. God wants us to live rejuvenated lives every day. For that to be possible it’s necessary that on occasions we make a temporary stop and conduct a thorough cleansing of all that was collected as we speed through life. God wants to help us to clean out things effectively.

Prayer
Today we join with the Psalmist in his prayer: ”Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps 139:23-24 NIV)