I love fall but I don’t love fallen leaves. And pine needles. I’ve already raked up and bagged, with the help of my trusty boys, forty bags of yard “stuff.” And it just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. So, completely getting it out of the yard is impossible.

But what I like even less is when that “stuff” gets tracked into the house. It’s hard enough to keep a house clean with the people traffic and the dog, without adding in the leaves that stick to our feet. So, I sweep the steps everyday- it reduces what we drag in and I can see some progress.

If my soul is like a house… then sweeping the front steps can be pretty crucial, too.

John Wesley once said that our moving from no faith to salvation was like exploring a house. [The best link I can find to an image of that is here.] Prevenient grace is the porch where we’ve been invited by God and we haven’t yet entered. When we’re “justified” or the moment we choose to accept is represented by the door into the house. And finally, sanctifying grace (or growing in faith) is our exploration of the house.

So… back to sweeping the steps. There’s a lot that I don’t want in my “house,” from things I see to things I’ve done, but if I am not careful, if I am not in the regular habit of both cleaning the “interior” but also maintaining boundaries around the outside of the house, my house can be overrun.

And some of that is much worse than a few leaves and a couple of pine needles.