Insights from Sewage

This past Saturday we had one of our normal EE meetings in Santa Anita. In the middle of our meeting before our visitations, a foul odor entered the church. Then I could hear the sound of cars passing by, and the sound of them passing on wet cement. For those who don't know, it does not really rain here in Lima. It mists, and occasionally the mist will accumulate just enough for tiny droplets, but never enough to make a street that wet. My guess was a burst of a septic pipe, and as we left for our visits, we found that it was true, and much of Santa Anita was full of "stuff", mostly in water.

Yet, after our visits, some of us started talking about the sewage, and the truth that can be found in it. We had to be outside taking in the full force of what was in the street, and it smelt horrible! But, after time, we couldn't smell it anymore. And as we discussed, that sewage is just like our sin: Foul! Ruining every street of our life. Affecting everything. Getting splattered over everything. And soon, that smell goes away. The wetness dries. Yet, it is still foul, and we don't notice it. Our sin, as we live in it, looses its odor, we get used to it. But it is still there affecting everything and everyone around us, and mostly us.

Another thought. The next day, Laura and I were doing a duet in church. She was singing, and I was playing my flute. On the way to church I was polishing my flute, after it had gotten pretty dirty with my practicing. I placed the polishing cloth up in its separate part of my case, and somehow got distracted and didn't close up properly my flute in the case. When we got out of the taxi in front of the church at Santa Anita, part of my flute fell on the ground. Not just the ground. The muddy ground....muddy from the night before. Knowing that part of my flute was sitting in essentially sewage, I got so discusted! (I am grateful that it wasn't the mouthpiece of my flute... that would have been so much worse!)

But, that is like our spiritual life too. God works on us, polishing our lives, and what do we often do? Jump right into "poo". The sin that waits in the mud around us, and we often can't help but go right into it. Is the Polisher discusted, as I was? The most beautiful part, is that God delights in repolishing us, so that we shine. Not shining of ourselves, but shining forth His glory.

(and on another note (no pun intended) here is a picture from our music special at church)