During church yesterday, our pastor was teaching on getting outside the box when it comes to evangelism and the Great Commission. He was sharing about the limiting mindsets or barriers we can have when moving forward in new ways of service. Many years ago when our church built its new sanctuary, one of the first events they offered was for local high school students after football games. After that first evening, our pastor found himself on his hands and knees with a bottle of 409 and a bunch of paper towels trying to clean up scuff marks. A friend saw him doing this and asked, “Pastor, what are you doing? We built this place for scuff marks!”
As we build and nourish our homes in cozy and lovely ways, it is easy to forget that our spaces are here to serve us and others. We do not serve the space. We take care of it, steward it, but are not to preserve it. On the missional way of loving our families and guests, we can begin to focus on the wrong things and can have misplaced priorities. We fight against the messy and resent the use of our spaces by others. We place our love of things or aesthetics higher than our love for people. It is natural to be this way, but supernatural to submit all of our belongings to Him and for His purposes. All that we have is His. A simple prayer I say almost daily is: everything is Yours.
Have we built our spaces with scuff marks in mind? What kind of emotions do we feel when we see them? Scuff marks can be a metaphor for many imperfections that others cause. Dirty walls. Sofa stains. Grass clippings in the entry way. Toothpaste on sinks. Spaghetti sauce on a tablecloth. Sharpie bleed on a table. I find that my tender places of insecurity and perfectionism feel anger at these things. It can feel like my worth and identity are on the line, and that others are undermining all of my ego-bolstering, my sense of control, my demand for rightness. I forget that dirt and mess are all a part of fallen life on earth, that they aren’t emergencies, and that cycles of order and disorder are an ongoing rhythm and are not a measure of morality. Sometimes I feel so desperate for total cleanliness that I know my issue has to be a much deeper one, usually a question of my belovedness.
We surrender our homes. The walls, the floors, the tables, the chairs, the sofas, the lamps, the art. We offer these gifts back to Him daily, to be used for His glory and the good of others. We manage these gifts well, but do not assign our worth according to their imperfections. God’s pleasure and love are not on the line; they are secure. We accept the messes as part of life, as part of the human experience, as part of our calling as servants. We lovingly tend, repair, clean, offer, and do it again. When we are washing feet, expect them to be dirty. Expect the scuff marks and may we find gratitude that these are the very marks that show that the house is filled.
A scuffed, surrendered soul,
Aimee
I needed this so much today. Thank you!
Thank you for writing this, it’s exactly what I needed to hear. I look forward to each of your posts so much! ~Kate