Oh Lord, I am tired of cleaning my house. As I sweep the floor, I must move furniture with other layers of dirt and grime underneath the surface. When I started preparing my spiritual home for Advent, I thought my task was simple. Indeed, I could clear the cobwebs quickly and resume my life. I know now I was wrong.

     Each day, I discover that the more I clean, the more work I must finish. Sometimes, like now, I get overwhelmed and feel like I cannot continue. There is too much work to do. I sweep away what appears to be a shame I carried for a very long time. Unfortunately, I only scratched the surface. I must do more work to get closer to the center of my pain.

     Though my soul is weary, I discover an essential process in preparing for my guest. I cannot heal a lifetime of hurt in one quick swoop. While it takes a lot of time to break free of my past, I finally find that with each passing step, I draw lighter as the load I carry falls to the wayside. Sometimes, it is a full box that falls, while I lose a speck of dust at others.

     While doing the work God asked of me, I realized something. Jesus still intends to be our guest, no matter how much we finish. While we work to clean our spiritual houses, the Savior walks beside us to offer comfort in our time of need. The cleansing part is not that we complete our task but put in the work.

     God knows our imperfections and wants us to continue to clean so we may remain faithful disciples. The Savior knows my weariness, but I know he is the one who picks me up to give me strength to face another pile of dirt. Although the journey may get complicated at times, Jesus travels with us, offering to be our shelter in a port of storm.