Spick and Span

I’ve been thinking about cleaning.  With a whole week in front of me, when I wasn’t working, but had no specific plans, it seemed a good time to apply myself to an autumn clean of my flat.  I confess that it’s something about which I always have great reluctance, partly due to conditioning by my ex-wife, who had high expectations in this direction, and insisted that it was completed as a preliminary to any weekend excursion. It seemed that this was a sort of ‘payment in advance’ for the enjoyment to follow ... which I resented.  Many years later, I realise that - quite apart from the health aspects - I also have a responsibility to maintain the condition of my surroundings ... it’s a form of stewardship. 

Often when I think of housekeeping, the words ‘who sweeps a room as for thy laws’ come to mind, and today I tracked it down.  Written by George Herbert (1593-1633), it’s part of a poem called ‘The Elixir’, which has come down to us as the familiar hymn ‘Teach me, my God and King’.  Herbert was born in Wales, the eighth or ninth of ten children.  His biographer describes his aims as ‘careful self-scrutiny rather than rhetorical pronouncement’, characterised by humility and integrity, not a yearning for celebrity.  His father died before he reached the age of four, so it’s no surprise that he was devoted to his mother, who was an astute manager of the family’s fortunes, and also took a keen interest in her children’s spiritual education.

It’s worth reading all through that hymn if you have the time, for in its simple verses it underlines the importance of perceiving God in everything we see and do in life, however humble and mundane ... which happens to be a neat summary of the aim of these articles!

I can’t leave the topic of cleaning without offering a couple more thoughts.  Sometimes cleaning can be carried out as a by-product of meeting another need, such as looking for something (Luke 15:8).  If a lot of clutter has accumulated, it can obscure an item that has been lost.  This is not just true in material things, but in spiritual matters too of course, so it’s important from time to time to put a determined effort into removing clutter from our devotions, prayers and worship, and refocus on the important core aim of drawing closer to God.

But, like using the more aggressive cleaning compounds without gloves, any cleaning operation carries with it a health and safety warning (Luke 11:25).  If the rubbish has been thrown out, the corners where it lurked are now empty, and there’s only one thing to do with an empty corner, whether it’s in a room or in our lives ...

Let’s be sure we re-fill with the good stuff!