Joseph Yoo

That is a picture of dog poop that has been sitting about 5 feet from our door for, I don’t know, almost two months now.
No. We don’t have a dog.
One morning, I was on my way to church and when I walked out of the house, I saw this big pile of dog poop greeting me a good morning.

I was thoroughly annoyed. Why would someone in the apartment complex walk their dog and not clean up after themselves?
Who would let a dog do it’s business so close to someone else’s house and not clean up???

I didn’t want to clean it up. I didn’t want to touch no dog  poop. So I went to church.

And the next day, I saw that the dog poop was still there. I guess a part of me that it would be gone by the next day, but nope. There it was, wishing me a good morning.
But I didn’t want to touch it. And definitely didn’t want to step on it.

So it got harder as time passed by. The weather got colder, the poop got harder.
One time, I didn’t see where I was going, and I accidentally stepped on it. But instead of it smooshing on to the bottom of my shoe, I heard an audible “crunch.” Gross.

But. I still didn’t clean it up.

Today, not only is the dog poop hard as a rock (I’m assuming) but it moved. I don’t know how it moved. We did have strong winds… but it’s no longer in its original spot. If you look at the picture, you can see where it used to be, as it left is mark.

I’m getting to my  point.  And yes, I did have one.

See, had I cleaned that poop up immediately, I’d be done with it. Probably never would’ve thought about it almost two months later. And it would’ve been an easy clean. Just get some plastic  bags or gloves and scoop it up.
But I didn’t. I waited. Now, if I want to clean it up, there has to be a bit of scrubbing that is involved, to remove that hardened, dried poop stain it left on the sidewalk. Much more work. Much harder to clean.

That’s how sin works in our lives.
There are things in our lives that we know is wrong. But we either ignore it or we don’t really think about it and continue on with our lives (and, perhaps, with the sin).
And instead of cleaning it up right away,we just let it dwell in our hearts, lives and souls.

Eventually, much like the poop in my walkway, that poop in our hearts  began to hardened.
When we realize that we need to clean up act, or go through a heart cleansing, we realize that we let this thing sit in our lives for far too long, and it’s hard to budge. If we had dealt with it the moment it entered our lives, it might’ve been easier. But now, after it has made a dried, hardened stain on our hearts, it may require us getting on our knees to scrub that poop off.

We need to constantly be checking our hearts and have the courage and strength to flush out our system of the bad stuff.
Because the longer we ignore it, the longer we wait, the harder it is to cleanse it out of our hearts and lives. Here’s a new image of God for you: God’s also the pooper scooper of our hearts!

Oh. And, please don’t forget to clean up after your dogs.