Daily Dirt

When I was a middle-schooler, I remember seeing reruns of an old TV sitcom called "Carter Country". I can hardly remember anything about the show, but I do remember a vigorous debate between the police chief and his sergeant about whether it was better to take a shower in the evening or in the morning. The sergeant (like me) was arguing that the morning shower was best.

The chief had a great response, though: "So you take all your daily dirt to bed with you?" Or words to that effect, but I won't forget the phrase "daily dirt".

Confession of sins is so important to maintaining a right relationship with God, which is why we've talked about it for the past two sermons. We must keep "short accounts" with God, to use other words. I spend much of my daily prayer time confessing sins - typically I go through each of what the Christian scholars from the Middle Ages called "The Seven Deadly Sins", that is, pride, greed, gluttony, lust, envy, wrath, and sloth, and ask God to wash me clean of instances of each. Often I am not aware of sins I have done - but God knows that.

We want our relationship with the living and loving God to be close, don't we? Then let us spend time every day -- and any time we are aware of doing something wrong or selfish -- to confess our sins before His feet, and receive the washing and cleaning only He can do in our lives.

In fact, doing this before bed is probably a good idea... who wants to take their "daily dirt" to bed?