Sanding Out the Flaws

So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the LORD God of Israel commanded. Joshua 10:40

In the process of adding on to our old cottage, we decided to refinished the old hardwood floors in the existing structure. So, we rented a sander, expecting it to take just a couple of hours one afternoon to remove the old stain. Because the floor was flawed and uneven though, that belt sander removed the finish on only the elevated parts of the floor, leaving the low spots untouched. The process grew monotonous as we spent several days, with several different sanders, going over it again and again to address those uneven flaws. In the process, we realized the floor was never going to be perfect, but still, we wanted it to be better than it was, so we kept at it.

That’s a lot like recovery for me. Drug use was just my most obvious flaw. Years of following myself meant I had a lot of flaws and getting sober only addressed one of them. I’m still selfish, prideful, gluttonous, lustful, angry, and greedy. So, recovery has been this process of continually looking at my failures to see what I need to work on next. I know I’ll never be perfect in this life, but I want to be better tomorrow than I was yesterday, so today, I must be willing to address my failures. If I tolerate my sin, letting something slide, I find that I’m more willing to tolerate sin in other areas. If I quit working on recovery, I will slide inevitably backwards towards relapse.

Continual growth is meant to be the normal Christian life, as described by Jesus in Luke 9:23 – If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me – and it’s the same process described in today’s passage. In the story, as the Israelites reclaimed the land of Canaan, God directed them to destroy one city after another. For the Israelites to find the new life God intended, they had to remove everyone and everything that was outside his will.

It’s a violent story, one that illustrates how violent I must be in removing sin from my life. If I tolerate sin in one area, it metastasizes, spreading to other areas. So, living in faith and recovery means continually going over my life, like that hardwood floor, enduring the work and discomfort of addressing the flaws. I’ll never be perfect in this life, but if I desire the new life and if I want to follow Christ better tomorrow than I did yesterday, today I must be willing to do what it takes to abandon my way for his.