I just had an experience that was hard to believe and now the Lord is pounding away at my heart about the spiritual lesson involved. We are on a breakfast date, and because the only local bank branch we have now is in a nearby city, we decided to go to the Waffle House there. We have eaten at this WH many times, and always have a good experience. However. This morning it was packed, and although they had plenty of help, the cooks were going 90 to nothing trying to keep up with the orders. I ordered a texas toast breakfast samdwich, and just happened to look at the cooking area at the time my sandwich was done and ready to be cut in half. And I watched, to my horror, as she put my sandwich down, on the cutting board, with NO PLATE separting the sandwich and the board, and cut it!! THEN it was put on a plate, and the board was wiped with a wet rag that was sitting in a pile of rags! I waited, praying that was not MY sandwich, but sure enough it was presented to me about 15 seconds later.

I am seldom speechless, but when our sweet waitress put it down I was. I was trying to figure out how to politely let her know what O had just seen without being rude, and I managed to just tell her what I had seen without any of what I was thinking. She asked if I wanted it remade, and I honestly couldn’t answer..I was at a loss because a new one would take 20 minutes more and the crowd was still thick. I finally decided that it had only been on the board for about 15 secs max, and that I would eat it and just pray no harm came. And so I did. So far, so good. And as I continued to glance over at the cutting board station, I noticed that every sandwich/food after that was always on a plate when it was cut!

And yet….God had so much more in mind for me today than just breakfast food. He showed me clearly through this how I am with sin in my own life, and MY efforts to clean it up and hide it from Him. Too often in my daily journey with Him I stray from His goal for me..holiness. I do not believe the cook was trying to deliberately break health protocol by putting my food directly onto the board. I do think, however, that in the rush and stress of the moment she was taking a shortcut to save time by not following all the rules..and she was willing to go there to look more efficient. Who knows…she might have even been praying no harm would come! But she was participating in something that she knew was wrong, could harm someone else, could get her into trouble, and thought no one would notice. Ouch! Sound familiar?? And just like the cook, who offered me a new sandwich that she had cut on a plate (I watched her) it was not enough to replace the damage done in my mind from seeing the other.

Just like I did this morning, however, God is ALWAYS watching us! He can see all the shortcuts we take, even when we think (and pray) that no one is watching. He sees us then take a dirty rag (our righteousness) and try to clean up the residue we have left. He also knows that dirty rag has been sitting there with other dirty rags (our efforts, our schemes) and knows the whole thing is corrupt and dirty throughout. He knows,too, that our actions can cause harm to ourselves, and also to others as we sin, and that only His grace can cover everything as we repent. And when we try to replace our “bad deed” with one done correctly, it too is not enough.

So what should have happened? In an ideal world, the sandwich would have been remade, yes..but the cutting board would also have been replaced, and all the old handy, dirty cleaning rags removed and replaced with new ones. And that’s exactly what we should do in our own lives. When God points out our sin, we should immediately STOP. And let Him replace everything with HIS forgiveness, mercy, and love, and then let HIM recreate us again more like His image! To Him be the glory for His faithfulness!