When Superman Takes Up Permanent Residence in Your Dining Room

Exactly one month ago today we had a Superman birthday party for my youngest.   In addition to a slew of crepe paper, we hung a giant poster of Superman on the hutch in our dining room.

Last night I noticed that Superman still hangs in my dining room.

He’s hung there for an entire month.

We let him hang there until we moved it up to the boys room.  This way it wouldn’t wrinkle or rip until we got around to it, and maybe by leaving it hanging in our dining room we’d be more motivated to get around to it sooner than later.

Well, clearly that didn’t happen.

As I went to bed last night, I pondered that Superman hanging in my dining room.   See at first I saw him all the time.  Every time I walked in the room I’d see him and think, “We gotta take care of that.”   But a few days after the party we went to St Louis.  I was busy washing clothes and packing suitcases.  Then we got home and I was busy unpacking and then life happened.  Practices, banquets, belt tests, get togethers with friends.  Life is busy for a family of 6.

And though Superman still hung prominently in our dining room.  I stopped seeing him.   I have literally sat across the table from him for a month, and I don’t notice him anymore.  He’s become a semi permanent fixture at our house and I no longer notice his presence. 

Except when friends would come over.  Just last week a friend stopped by, “This looks like a job for superman,” she said. 

“Oh yea…. Superman is still there”, I thought.  I gotta get around to that.  Slightly embarrassed, I laughed it off .

This week I hosted friends on two different occasions.  I didn’t go crazy with house cleaning, but I did make sure to straighten up.  I did the dishes so my sink was empty, swept the dust bunnies off of the floor, and made sure there was a clean hand towel hanging in the bathroom.

And not once did I give a thought to Superman in the dining room.

That’s just how used to his presence I’ve become.  I don’t see him anymore.

And I couldn’t help but ponder last night how this is a picture of sin.  How often do we have a sin in our life, one we know we need to deal with and yet we ignore it so much that we just fail to see it anymore?  What was once glaringly obvious has now taken up residence in our heart, in our life, until we don’t even notice it at all.  

My prayer today is that the Lord would open my eyes to the sin in my own life that I’ve grown too comfortable with.  And instead of ignoring it as I’ve down in the past,I pray that I would see it for what it is… sin.  And then I ask for strength to confess it, repent of it, and allow the Lord to free me from it’s grasp on my life.  

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.