Cleaning becomes a lot more appealing when it is a holiday, so every year my roommate and I celebrate Scrubadubdub Day. This is the day that you get into the nooks and crannies. This year, I was in charge of the kitchen; my roommate the bathroom and dusting.

I started the job with fervor. I took everything out of the cupboards to clean them out. I scrubbed the stovetop to rid the surface of charred remnants. I cleaned the top of the fridge (which I never see because I am so short). I tackled the microwave, the counters, the window sills.

But the cleaner my kitchen got, the more discouraged I became. As I cleaned every surface, the unnoticeable dirt began to show up. This led me to clean the baseboards, the backsplash, even the walls. In order to clean, I must see dirt. My eyes were drawn to the dirt.

Then I realized what a beautiful metaphor this is to life as a Christian. We ambitiously tackle sin in our lives. We grow in holiness, yet we get discouraged because we are more sensitive to sin, and see more and more sin inside of us.

What do we do with this problem? Well, we just keep going—pursuing holiness and embracing grace. As we become like Christ, we must remember that Christ’s blood covers our sin whether we see our sin or not. That is God’s work. That is victory.

…That I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—…. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3: 9, 13-14