Sludge That Binds

Have you ever had a day where you felt like you were just dragging a 500 lb person through the sludge and mud?

Yesterday, I decided to replace a twenty year old faucet in our bathroom. This project actually started as an idea to replace a light fixture that was outdated in our powder room. I'm very fortunate to have grown up with a dad who made me…oh, I mean was nice enough to have me help him with all of the household projects. He had me learn how to use tools and how to fix various things. This has really paid off as my husband really did not grow up learning all the handy stuff. So, I replaced the light fixture. Then, I decided that the other fixtures in the bathroom were outdated. I replaced the towel bar, the toilet seat, and the toilet paper holder. After that, I stood back pleased with my work and saw that several other things were outdated. Talk about a snowball effect. Then, I decided to replace the mirrored medicine cabinet with a beautiful mirror. I showed my son how you use math in "real" life by measuring and placing the mirror on the wall. I stood back pleased with my work and saw that it wasn't quite complete. I replaced the door knob and knew that the piece de résistance would be a new faucet. Clearly it was outdated since it was 20 years old and surely this would only take a little while to replace. Let me start by saying our powder room is not particularly large and the vanity has two small openings to access the works underneath. I maneuvered and twisted my body to fit in the small opening and started to remove the old faucet. I did shut off the water in case you were wondering if I took a face full of water. After getting almost every piece undone, I pulled out the final pipe and the most putrid smelling sludge came sliding out. It was black and slimy and covering my hands everywhere. Really gross and slimy things do not normally bother me (I do have children) but the smell was HORRIBLE and made me nauseous. I pulled myself together and got massive amount of paper towels and cleaned everything out thoroughly. I guess after 20 years, it is understandable that there was that much sludge in there. However, it was such a reminder of what we hold onto.

Today is a new day 3 (in my quest to start over again) and day 3 is ALWAYS the hardest in anything that you do. Every step I took today during my mile, seemed like I was climbing the largest mountain in the snow and ice. It was hard to breathe, tough to move and just plain difficult to keep going. Isn't that true in our lives? The more that we store up, whether it be fat or whether it is something deeper like a grudge, anger or hurt, the harder it is to move. Part of me laughs about my experience over the last several days regarding switching out all of the pieces in the bathroom. God sat back after everything he created and said it was good just like me surveying my bathroom and seeing what else needed to be added. But the more I sat thinking about that slime and sludge and the awful smell that it brought, the more I thought about how God is trying to clean that out of our lives and yet we continue to hold onto it. The longer we hold onto it, the more we just plain STINK! Philippians 3:13-14 says:
¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As I reflect on my mile today, I realize that maybe I am holding onto things that I should not. They stick to us like stinky slime and I will be praying about what those things might be. What are you holding onto that while you can't see it, is sticking to you and making you just plain stink?