The Street Cleaner

I haven't written in awhile, mainly because everything has changed in my life AGAIN and I have been keeping it between God and some close friends. But yesterday while out running I got a inspiration for a post and couldn't get it out of my mind till I wrote it. I have to say that I can sometimes get thoughts or inspirations on life in some of the weirdest ways....a street cleaner no less!

I was out running on the sidewalk alongside a pretty busy street outside my neighborhood which part of the street only allows each way one lane. There was one of those big street cleaners moving along with it's big brushes doing it best to clean up the streets in town. But the most interesting part wasn't the street cleaner itself but the long line of cars behind it. Street cleaners don't move very fast. They can't, they have to move slowly to make sure they get the job done correctly, make sure the big brushes get into every spot that it can. As I ran I could almost feel the frustration and impatience of the people in each car because they were stuck behind it. I could only imagine some of the not so nice words that were coming out of their mouths due to that frustration! You know what I mean, we've all said them or thought them! Anyway, everyone finally reached the part of the road that opened up to two lanes and once they were able, the long line of cars whizzed by the street cleaner and hurried on their way.

I thought to myself how much of a parallel you could draw between the street cleaner and God and the long line of cars as our fellow believers in Christ. God is constantly cleaning our lives with his big brushes, sweeping away the dirt and grim that dirties our lives and the trash thrown by others in days gone past that hinder the beauty he knows that is within. He doesn't go fast, he takes his time. He goes slowly, making sure he gets every spot. But sadly along the way of God cleaning our lives we encounter those Christians that grow frustrated and impatient with us because we are not clean yet or we haven't gotten rid of the debris from the past yet. I've encountered this myself and was told things like "you should be over the past by now" and " you haven't shown enough fruit in your life" and all the while my salvation was in question because this was the way they judged it by how fast I was going on the road. With all their theology and wisdom I think they forgot that I wasn't the street cleaner doing the cleaning but that God was and His timing is never anyone else's timing. God knows that 38 years of a life spent without Him in it, with so much hurt, grim, dust and sin in it was going to take more than 3 years to clean it out. It was going to take a lifetime. He was going slowly making sure He didn't leave a spot missed. Yes, sometimes it was through fault of my own that He had to go even slower because I was being stubborn and refusing to let Him into some of the corners, but He never stopped, He never gave up. He would just slow down, unhindered by the long line of people behind me and would take His loving hands and reach in and little by little clean out those stubborn corners. My past was not easy and it's taking God extra time than it may with others to rid me of some of the pain that it caused. I'm not angry with these people just sad that their compassion for a fellow Christian reached an impatient point and enticed them to judge my salvation based on my how fast I was growing. No amount of scriptures will support that our salvation is based on or gained by how much fruit we have shown in our lives. Salvation is free. It was paid for on the Cross. And no amount of scriptures will support that there is a certain timetable as to how fast a persons life bares fruit. And before you twist it around and say that it is by our fruit that our salvation is known check out what the fruits of the spirit are.....love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control and hold them up to the life you are judging and see how many of them are apparent in them. I myself know that I have modeled love, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control since becoming saved by God's grace. Him and I are still working on the joy, peace and patience fruits! But I have to believe that having the majority of them is definitely showing some "fruits in my life"!

So the next time you think of judging a person based on what you perceive as how fast they should be growing I hope you will think of this post. I talked recently with someone that was also hurt by some lack of compassionate words because they also weren't where someone thought they should be and now that person has little desire to attend church. I am so grateful that my love for God and my faith in Him is stronger than my faith in anyone else's ideas of me or thoughts of me. Remember God is the cleaner of others lives and He will take as long as is necessary, totally unaware of the long line of impatient people wanting us to go faster. Remember too, God is the gardner and with patience He cultivates our soul and tends to our hearts and waits for us to grow into the beautiful person that He knows us to be. Don't grow impatient, sometime it takes longer than it did for you or for someone else you know. Don't give up and miss out on the things God can do in the blink of an eye in someones life. I've grown tremendously in the last several months and I can see the beauty that is coming from God's patience in "street cleaning" my life. He has reached areas of my heart that I have kept guarded and is cleaning it out and making me free!

And the next time you get stuck behind an actual street cleaner take some time to think about what he is doing for the town you live in. Don't get impatient and take it for granted. Someone cares enough to tend to the town you live in and to make it as beautiful as he can.

And remember.............For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)