A New Perspective

I stood up on my sofa today to dust a picture frame that I had not dusted in a while. As I was now at eye level with the top of the frame, I could see a thick layer of dust that I had not noticed before when I was at ground level. I took that opportunity to look around the room and see if there were other things that might need my cleaning cloth’s swipe. I was amazed to see the little cobwebs in the corners. A dangling puff of dust hanging from my chandelier.  A tiny spider making his way to a new spot in which to weave a web. Examining the room from that new height gave me a perspective I didn’t have before climbing up on the sofa.

I wondered how many little “cleaning jobs” there might be in my own heart that I had not seen day to day, week after week. So, I decided to climb up in my mind and see if I could look at my heart from a higher perspective. I pretended to stand on a sofa in my mind and look around my heart with an inquiring eye. Instead of a few cobwebs in the corners, I saw a little bit of bitterness that something had not gone the way I had wanted. I saw a layer of envy that sat on top of my thoughts, when I wrongly believed that other people somehow were more blessed with material things or an easier path in their lives than I had. I saw some anger with folks who didn’t agree with me, or who somehow had “done me wrong”.  These were not huge things—indeed until I stood on the sofa in my mind, I would not have even noticed them. But there they were. I took my spiritual cleaning cloth right to the task. I thought of the Bible verses that taught me not to hold bitterness, or envy or anger. I bent my head, confessed my attitudes and promptly asked for forgiveness. I paused for several minutes, waiting to see if I would feel any different.

When I got up to go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, I turned and looked at my living room. Even though I had not seen that dust prior to standing on the sofa, I now saw my living room as sparkling clean. I knew that there was no dust anywhere, hidden or not. And that felt good, And, as the tea kettle began to sing, I realized that my heart seemed sparkling clean again. There was no longer any bitterness, envy or even anger –hidden or not. And that felt great!