Month 2 of the World Race has quickly coming to an end, and tomorrow my team and I will head to Quito, Ecuador. As I pack my backpack and prepare for yet another long bus ride I can’t help but wonder, “Where did the time go?” Hours turned into days, and days into weeks, and the month is over in the blink of an eye. It feels like just yesterday we drove through Trujillo, Peru in awe of the people and the culture and the mountains and the beach; and now as I get ready to leave, I feel like I’m leaving home yet again.
I learned a lot this month, but as I look back I realized that the things I “learned” are actually truths that knew all along. In reality, my month was a review session of all of the things I was taught in Sunday school as a child. I was reminded of God’s unfailing love, his limitless mercy, and his desire for an intimate relationship with us. This month, we did lots of different kinds of ministry, but the second week in Peru was really humbling and insightful for me.
Our second week of ministry was mostly painting and physical labor. When we were painting we would mix the paint with water to make it go further and save money. My job all week was a very obscure but necessary one. I would follow the painters with a bucket of water and a scrub brush and scrub all of the paint that dripped on the concrete. I would crawl from person to person scrubbing spot after spot trying to catch them all before they dried. It was pretty funny and a little frustrating at the same time. As soon as one area was clean, I was off to the next one only to hear my name called because some paint had dripped on the spot that I just finished.
The whole time I was scrubbing I thought, “This is what Jesus died for, and this is what he does for us.” We make a mess and drip paint everywhere, and He gladly scrubs it clean for us. We call on him to help us with one spot, and before we know it we are messing up somewhere else. The great thing is that He rejoices when we call His name. If we don’t call on Him to help us with the spilled paint right away it dries and becomes harder to clean. If we don’t call on Him at all, the paint stains the floor. The “walls” of our lives might be beautifully painted with straight lines and perfect edges, but if the floors are stained and spotted the room loses its luster. I was reminded all week to call on Jesus one spot at a time, and I want to encourage you to do the same. Call on Him for the new spots that haven’t dried yet. Call on Him to scrub the old ones that have dried and hardened and stained.
The truth is – God is ready and waiting for you to call His name. He loves your painted walls, but He knows that you will never look at them and be satisfied if you know the floors are spotted and flawed. I challenge you to look critically at your life. Look for the things in your heart that you have hidden away or covered up and ask God to scrub them clean for you. Ask him to take away the shame and guilt, to ease the pain, and to renew your spirit. There is no spot too big or too old for Him. He created you and he will gladly take care of His precious creation if we allow him to do so. So call His name and then trust that He has it taken care of, and rejoice in the freedom that follows!
