Do you have one of those rooms in your house?
You know.
That room.
The one that you would rather not include on a house tour. The one that you’d maybe just like to forget about all together.
Ok. Maybe it isn’t a whole entire room (or maybe it’s a few rooms), but it might be a closet or something considered as “storage space”…an attic, a basement, a side of your garage.
Do you have a place in your house that is messy, dirty, cluttered, and otherwise fairly embarrassing? A place that you just kind of throw things that have no other home? A place that you would rather not look at yourself, let alone show others?
If you’re like me, the answer to that type of question is “Yes. Yes, I do. In fact there are a few places like that.”
You may have the best intentions to be neat. You may have plans to organize and re-arrange, but still there are some places that just don’t get the attention that they need, some rooms that are a mess and have stayed that way for a number of years. I have these spaces in our house. Trust me. I’m working on it.
One such room is what we refer to as the utility room. It’s not huge. Large enough to hold the furnace, hot water tank, a stackable washer/dryer, and some “storage” space that is underneath the steps. Maybe it should be called a large utility closet. I don’t know. Regardless, it’s kind of an awkward space. There’s barely enough room to walk between the hot water tank & the furnace. Plus, once you are through that narrow gap, you are under the steps. Obviously that is a space that is challenging. Funny angles, tight quarters. In addition to all of this, the room is not really “finished.” There is no real ceiling and there are pipes, gas lines, and wires traveling throughout. For an added bonus, house spiders seem to like it as there are plenty of places for them to sling their webs. Oh yeah, it also holds the distinct advantage of being a little extra dirty than the rest of the house. Anything you put in there is bound to eventually be covered in dirt and dust. The stairs have little seams/gaps between the treads and risers. Dirt seems to be consistently showering through those seams. Sounds pretty great, right? I think so too.
All in all, this is not a place that I enjoy visiting. Typically, I use the front part of the room, where the laundry is located, and I leave the rest of the space relatively untouched. Items that are in that space are generally the type that I will not need consistently (most are likely not needed at all). Spiders can do their thing. The dirt can fall. The stuff can sit there all messy. I’m content to go in, help with the laundry, and go out, shutting the door behind me. Forgetting all about it. Not worrying about that space in the least. Hoping not to return for a long, long time. The room has managed to stay in the background, largely ignored, largely avoided.
The other day that all changed.
Silas and I were on vacation traveling to Ohio & Michigan leaving Christa to have some nice time alone in the house. The problem? She wasn’t alone. One of my declared enemies (at least inside my home) had breached the blockades. Mice entered. They struck while I was away. They began to invade and try to take over our living space while we were gone. The nerve. We had to call in whatever reinforcements we could. Christa’s dad entered the picture, but then he had to leave. Her mom heard the battle cry and came in to fight. Her sister was enlisted. All hands were on deck. Anyone who was home and available was drafted into the Great Mouse War of 2021.
As if it weren’t miserable enough to have mice in the house and to have the family involved in the fight while I was out of town, but to add a little salt to the wound, guess where they decided to set up their base camp? Guess where they chose to center their operations?
That’s right. The utility room. That space that I would rather people never see. Ever. The mice chose the utility room as the perfect spot to attack. The darkness was ideal for their cover. There were plenty of little hiding places. Cardboard and other materials were around for the building of their barracks. Yes, the utility room was the perfect spot for the mice to set up shop. So, they did.
As the days passed, the battle raged. The mice started to make themselves comfortable in other rooms. The bathroom. The living room. The TV room. Scurrying out from the utility room, the mice were trying to take over the entire house. The family put up a good fight, but with only a small degree of success. The mice were just too engrained into the utility room, too comfortable in their base. Something needed done. The utility room needed addressed.
Fortunately, my brother-in-law returned home from the same festival that Silas and I had been attending (we stayed out-of-town longer to see family). He was willing to face the utility room head on.
Trust me. He was not happy.
“WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SPIDER WEBS!?!?! THIS PLACE IS RIDICULOUS!!!!!! NO WONDER MICE LIKE IT IN HERE!!!!!!”
He wasn’t wrong.
I was just hoping that nobody would ever see or experience that mess besides me.
I was hoping that I could keep that little room a secret. Hidden away. Nobody ever needed to know what was going on in that space.
Eventually, it didn’t work.
It never does.
For my good, for the benefit of my house, for the benefit of our family, my brother-in-law and my nephew braved the utility room to battle the mice. Though they didn’t get them all, they did succeed in removing their bases and taking care of some. I’m thankful for that.
We all have places like that, don’t we? Places that we try to hide. Places that we ignore. Places that we hope that nobody will ever see. Ever.
I’m not just talking about utility rooms either. I’m talking about places within our minds, places within our hearts, places within our spirits. We have had times when we have been hurt, times when we have been disappointed. We have had times when we have fallen short, where we have engaged in behaviors that we are not proud of doing. We have had times when we we’ve entertained thoughts that are not helpful or holy, where we’ve desired or yearned for things that we were never meant to have. We have places that are dark, that are dirty, that are dusty, and what have we done? We’ve shoved them under the steps in the utility room. We’ve hidden them away, allowing the spiders to build their webs, the dirt and the dust to settle, the mildew to build. We’ve tried to pretend as if these areas don’t exist, and we never, ever let anyone under any circumstance into these areas.
The problem?
Eventually if these things within our lives are not dealt with appropriately, mice will enter the picture. Enemies will take up residence in those hidden spots. Not only that, they will be so comfortable there that they will attempt to take over the other areas of our homes as well. Sooner or later little mice will be seen in places that are otherwise neat and tidy. Lapses of judgment. Compromises of character. Words that don’t match our beliefs. Thoughts and patterns begin to shift out of control until we just can’t hide it anymore. If these mice escapades are not dealt with appropriately, larger and large problems will surface until the mice are running the whole joint. (Sometimes we see people publicly fall into sin with a big, outward behavior, but I imagine that there were previous issues/problems that happened beforehand that were not sufficiently addressed. Inner pain that needed healing. Small lapses that needed handled. Other indicators that needed attention as they arose.) Problems will eventually come to the light. They always do. (Feel free to read Luke 8:17 or Luke 12:2-3 to see what Jesus says about the subject.)
Yesterday I cleaned out our utility room.
The mice in the house combined with my brother-in-law’s experience showed me that it was well past time. I did what needed done. I cleaned the utility room.
I entered with a shop vac and began to sweep away the spiderwebs. I cleared out the stuff, piece by piece, items that I hadn’t seen in years upon years. Some went into a bag for donation. Some went into a bag for the trash. A few things were allowed back into storage. I took a bucket and soap and washed things off, dusting the things that needed dusted. Short of moving the furnace, hot water tank, and washer/dryer, I emptied that place out.
Including the dead mouse.
I knew that smell was coming from somewhere.
I had let the utility room get to a place of embarrassment as well as a place that was a safe haven for mice, a place of refuge for them, a home. From that point, they sought to do the same with the rest of our home. No thank you. I knew what needed done. A reset. A complete and thorough cleansing. Emptying out all of the stuff that I no longer needed and allowing only that which was good/necessary/helpful back inside.
How about you?
Do you have places that need cleansing? Cobwebs that need swept? Areas that require confession? Embarrassing spots that need brought out into the light so that they might be healed?
I encourage you…don’t let those places go too long. Don’t let them be built up into a safe haven for our enemy (see Ephesians 6:12). Don’t let the mice feel comfortable enough there that they start to move into other areas. Now is the time to act! Now is the time to heal! Now is the time to move! Now is the time to clean out the utility rooms of our soul!
Yes, it might be hard. Yes, it might involve going before another believer and baring your soul. Yes, they might even say “What is the deal with all of these spiderwebs?” But trust me, the opposite is far, far, far, far worse.
Take this advice from James:
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
~James 5:16
Try this sometime. You might find that bringing your problems to light in the hands of a committed follower of Jesus is the very thing that sets you free.
Friend, it’s time. Take care of that room in your life. Trust me. You will be happy that you did.
~ Pastor Chris
