A View From Your Knees

I spent the better part of an hour on my knees yesterday - scrubbing the bathroom floor.

Now, if you know me, you know that I hate cleaning the bathroom. I also have fibromyalgia, so this type of serious cleaning is also very painful. But it has to be done, so I take care of it.

While I was down there this time, my mind wandered. Probably not a new occurrence for my brain, but it wandered some fun and interesting places, and I wanted to share those random thoughts with you.

* Time on your knees gives you a better perspective. The floor looked pretty OK as I was standing up, but once I got down on my knees, I realized just how much fur and hair and hairspray there was. That change in perspective makes all the difference in what you really see.

Time on your knees in prayer gives you a better perspective on your heart condition. You may feel OK and look OK from a distance, but your prayer time really makes you focus on how you're doing ... up close and personal. God already knows the details, but time on your knees gives you the opportunity to do some serious looking, too.

* Time on your knees tests your endurance. With FMS, I can only be down on my knees for a little while at a time. But once I get going with my floor scrubbing, I don't want to stop! Once I see the progress I'm making, I want to just a little more ... and a little more ... and soon I've done a whole big chunk of the work. It may take me a minute to get back up, but the effort was definitely worth it.

Time on your knees in prayer tests the endurance of your very soul. Do you say a couple of thank yous and move on with your day? Do you throw out some requests every now and then when they come to mind? Or do you set aside some serious fellowship time with the Lord? When we make our time with Him a priority, our endurance grows a little more ... and a little more ... until we're craving even more time on our knees.

* Time on your knees puts you in the right position. I could very easily have just used a mop and floor cleaner and done a once-over on the bathroom floor. But that would have only gotten the top layer of gunk off. (Yes, it's wonderful having a white floor and black dogs.) Not until I got on my knees could I really put in the physical effort necessary to get through the gunk, getting in all the nooks and crannies.

Time on your knees puts you in the right position to really make an effort. We're in such a hurry these days to "do things" for God, but we often neglect the quiet times to just commune with Him. Sure, we could race through the day and still be working for the Lord, but time on our knees focuses us. We're not just skimming the surface, but getting to all the tight corners through our prayer life.

Now, if only my floor and my heart would stay this clean. Maybe that's why cleaning is an all-the-time chore. That's how the Lord gets us to be still and get things in order.