A few days ago I took my daughter and her friend to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  It’s off-season there, meaning tourists may get more than they bargained for.  Which we did.

As we walked closer to the center point of the Inner Harbor, we saw a large crane floating on a barge.  We could see the bucket going into the water, then hovering over the nearby barge.  And we heard the nerve-rattling screeching noise of the heavy equipment doing its job.  They were dredging the harbor.

Over time stuff builds up from the bottom (silt, garbage, etc.) and makes the harbor too shallow for boats to navigate.  From the surface, you can’t see it.  But it’s there.  And it STINKS!  Apparently that gunk at the bottom of the harbor is related to sewage!  We hurried by, covering our noses to keep from throwing up.  It’s definitely NOT the kind of impression you want to make on visitors to the famed Inner Harbor.  But dredging has to be done.  Regularly.

Our lives are very much like the harbor.  Activity, relationships, stress, desires, disappointment and time conspire to leave gunk on the bottom of our life that needs to be cleaned up.  From the surface, others may not see it.  But it gets in the way.  It keeps us from functioning as we’re designed to.  And it needs to go.  Oh, did I mention…it’s kinda stinky!  It might be attitudes that creep in.  It might be ways of speaking to people close to us.  It might be habits that are unhealthy or destructive.  It might be the slow accumulation of ugly things that people have said to or about you.  We need to be dredged.

Thankfully, God is in the dredging business.  I’ve learned that going to the Bible with an open mind and heart is a great way to allow God to dredge up the gunk in my life, drop it on a nearby barge, and begin fresh. (God just dredged a little bit out of my harbor this week in Romans 9.)  And it’s much better to do that when it’s NOT tourist season…when you’re NOT having to explain it to lots of other people.  So why not take some time this week and invite God to do some dredging in your life?  You’ll be restored and so glad you did.  Do it now…before tourist season starts.

-Pastor Mark