“That’s what this generation is like: You may think you have cleaned out the junk from your lives and gotten ready for God, but you weren’t hospitable to my kingdom message, and now all the devils are moving back in.”

I’ve come to believe that it is the natural order in business that if we don’t constantly pay attention to “cleaning out” that some form of “dirt” will find it’s way back in.  Whether that dirt is clutter, bad habits, sloppy practices or even just that we lose attention to what is important and/or get lazy.  I am thinking of the companies that espouse a certain set of values and principles but over time they drift away from them and before anyone can even understand, the company is one that those from the past wouldn’t even recognize.  It’s a dangerous pattern and one that if we are not constantly overseeing could end us up where we don’t want to be.  The remedy might be to constantly be cleaning.  Yes, constantly evaluating and assessing to be sure that the clean, stays clean.

And so it is with ourselves.  If we are not daily monitoring and doing our own “cleaning” then we too can find that the “dirt” builds up.  Today, as we go about our work, where in ourselves do we see the need to do some clean up work?  Cleaning is a constant challenge.  As they say in the restaurant business, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean”.

Reference:  Matthew 12:45 (The Message)