Does your body have a visceral response such as a gigantic lump in your throat when someone hesitantly utters the words, “I need to Come Clean with you!” Personally, my preference would be that those words were intended as an act of service which might result in removing dust from my furniture or soap scum from my shower; however, we are all fully aware that the statement holds a heavier weight than a household cleaning rag. To Come Clean means, according to an online dictionary, “to admit something to someone, often regarding a wrongdoing that one has tried to hide.”

If only Coming Clean internally in our lives could be as simple as cleaning the exterior. Just this past week as I invested the time and energy in detailing my Jeep, I encountered this reality. Other than a little extra scrubbing to remove a few bugs and tar, cleaning the external surface of the Jeep was fairly simple, but when it came to cleaning the interior, there were all these crevices and small places where dirt and old French fries like to hide, especially that area between the seat and middle console. Just like our mind, heart, and souls, an interior cleaning requires a greater effort on our part. Or perhaps if a clean automobile is not an issue for you, consider the human body. We hop in the shower, apply a little soap, and voila, a revived and clean person emerges; however, cleaning the internal human body takes a bad stomach bug or a colonoscopy cocktail. External (easy) versus internal (hard)!

We’ve all learned more about Coming Clean this past year, thanks to COVID cleaning protocols and sanitation, than most of us really cared to know, yet I find that the lessons learned can be applied to other areas of our life. Just this morning I read in Our Daily Bread, “Keeping things clean can be a tedious process, as we learned in the pandemic. Scrubbing away sin, however, means following focused steps back to God.” Having just read through the book of Deuteronomy in Scripture, I am extremely thankful that these focused steps no longer include the extensive cleaning rituals of the Old Testament. I’d be lost trying to remember when to bring a goat, how to wash correctly, or when I might be considered unclean; however, the need still exists for us to recognize our sins and when we have committed a wrongdoing. The need to Come Clean applies not only when we have wronged others, but when we have wronged God.

Just as I must Come Clean with a friend, God desires that I also Come Clean with Him, such as praying Psalm 51 for a clean heart. “Have mercy on me, O God…according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Those might be the best words to use with a friend too! Or perhaps I might follow the instructions from the book of James as shared by Patricia Raybon, “’Come near to God and he will come near to you’ (v. 8). These are sanitizing words describing the necessity of turning to God to scour away the soil of sin from our lives. James then further explained the cleaning method: ‘Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up’ (vv. 9–10). Dealing with our sin is humbling. But, hallelujah, God is faithful to turn our ‘washing’ into worship.”

Coming Clean to my Lord might be slightly easier than with a friend because there are no guarantees that my friend will accept my request for forgiveness; however, I know Coming Clean is a necessary step to a healthy and flourishing relationship whether that’s with a friend or with my Savior. Have you experienced a time when asking to Come Clean was challenging but resulted in a great reward? Please feel free to share in the comments below.

References:

Farlex, Inc. (2021). Come clean. Retrieved from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/come+clean+with+me

Raybon, P. (2021, July 3). “Cleaning Method.” Our Daily Bread. Retrieved from https://odb.org/US/2021/07/03/cleaning-method