Cleaning out our home

We’ve all had the stress of cleaning out our home. Whether our home is an actual home, or a living room, or a bedroom. Whenever this happens, I think, “Where do I begin? In those stacks of receipts, in my pile of clothes, vacuuming…”

Well, our body is our home. Called by St. Paul as being a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor. 6:19). And it too needs to be cleaned. But when I know it’s dirty, I think, “Where do I begin? In my terrible habits, in my terrible thoughts…”

I know this child who has had a history of problems. From fighting, to calling others cuss words, to flipping others off, this child has had his share of evil. And then one day, while he was in the mist of his problems, he sat down and covered his ears up with his hands. He said he heard people yelling at him. Another person told me that the child look possessed.

In detail, he began telling me about horror music playing in his mind along with other nightmares. And this is when I began to pray for the child. I prayed and prayed for the child over several days, and then one day while driving home, I felt a strong calling to fast. The calling was clear. So I fasted and continued to pray.

The child’s behavior began to change, as if something had been lifted off his soul. And the child began to smile more. He said the evil had gone away and that he was going to church.

It’s like when we’ve just threw the last dirty sock into the laundry basket, when we’ve just filed the last receipt, the carpet is clean and the pillows are fluffed. We’re at peace and ready to lie on the bed. With a huge smile.

This is the story of how I learned to clean our house and other’s houses, too.

But we know our houses don’t stay clean forever. Every now and then, the child begins to let the dirt back in, and that is when I begin to pray once more.

“Come to me, all you who are weary, and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)

Slavery by the fear of death

Have you ever feared death?

“…all [our] lives were held in slavery by [our] fear of death.” (Heb. 2:15)

I have been a slave. I have feared the process of death, how it was to happen. Cancer? Heart attack? Car accident? And then, what will happen after we die? A light? What is heaven like? I have feared out of not fully knowing. I have been held in slavery by the fear of death.

But this is what God did for us.

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in [our] humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil- and free [us] who all [our] lives were held in slavery by [our] fear of death.” (Hebrews 2:14)

The way to be freed from being held in slavery by the fear of death is through belief that death has been defeated by God.

As we approach death, a death that can happen at any moment, let us hope that we can say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept my faith.”(2 Tim. 4:7).

Then we will be able to say:

Free at last! Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.