I don't want to know!

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Those of you who've had (or have) small kids have inevitably done this: vacuumed the rug and heard the sound of God-only-know-what being sucked up the hose. In our house this happens mostly in the dining room, because it's where the kids eat. The vacuum raises quite a ruckus because there are a ton of little things going in. Now, generally it's Kix crumbs and dried peas and goldfish cracker pieces, but sometimes there's a loud cracking sound as something really big gets sucked up into the machine. I'd rather not know what any of the things I'm vacuuming up are but eventually, enough of the small yucky things get into the bag and then it doesn't work as well; it loses its effectiveness and needs to be cleaned out.

Our Christian life can be the same way. I can allow a lot of "little" things to enter my eyes or ears and they swirl around in my heart and mind. No big deal; worldly "Kix crumbs" if you will-nothing horrible, just small things that aren't good. You'd rather not focus on them. Of course you're concerned about the big stuff-goodness, I couldn't possibly allow that!-but the small stuff goes in without a fight. But enough small things start to take effect and you lose your clean heart. I've been very convicted about this lately so I've "dumped my vacuum bag" as it were: canceled a subscription to a magazine, taken songs off my iPod, stopped watching one of the two TV shows I was watching. Little things, but if your prayer is Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect," (ESV) then maybe it's time to check what's going in and ask God to show you the junk clogging your life.