I have had this conversation with a lot of other people, so I know I’m not the only one that has a habit of washing my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I suppose in some ways this is a remnant of my childhood, having washed dishes at my grandparents’ house where there was no dishwasher machine. I also washed dishes at my own home growing up, probably because my mom trained me not to trust this “dishwasher” to really do the washing in full. Having been trained as an engineer, I realize the flaw in this common logic, but I have allowed it to remain for many years. Even today, I have a dishwasher in my home that is less than 2 years old. This fine dishwasher must be of decent design, based on the hundreds of dollars I paid for it, yet I still place shiny, (not only rinsed, but scrubbed) dishes into it and then waste water and detergent by running the dishwasher anyway. I did a little research and managed to find this article that actually clearly labels my habit as not only insulting to the design of the machine but also damaging to my dishes.
Apparently, if the dishes are too clean, with no food to attack on their surfaces, the dishes themselves can be “attacked” and damaged. So, I am officially going to stop pre-cleaning my dishes before utilizing this perfectly good machine to do the work for me.
What I also realized this week is that my pre-cleansing mentality also affects something more serious in my life: my very soul. As a believer in Christ, I have confessed that apart from his saving blood, I would be literally dead in my sin. What that death feels like in this world is more easily discussed when we refer to it as simply failure and shame. Ok, maybe those ideas aren’t that simple, but every human can understand and relate to the reality of our shame. I don’t like to go before God or anyone else without doing a little “pre-cleaning”. I know that only God can wash away my sin, but it’s seems easier for me to try to clean up my sin by myself, then go to God with a little less shame and a lot more pride. I was convicted this week of that tendency, remembering the truth that there is absolutely no pre-cleaning required when approaching God. He knows about the mess anyway. If the dishwasher engineer is offended that we put shiny dishes in the dishwasher, how must God respond to our own souls as we come to him and report that we are thankful for his unending grace but don’t really need it, thanks anyway. It’s ridiculous, right? I know I’m not the first person to do this, because just as Adam and Eve were the first humans to sin, they were the first to attempt to hide it:
After Eve ate the fruit of the tree (and game some to Adam)... “The eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” ~Genesis 3:7-8
Later, after God confronted Adam and Eve, exposing their nakedness (which, by the way, did not shock him), “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” ~Genesis 3:21
It’s pretty amazing that what Adam and Eve tried to do to cover themselves, God replaced, knowing their need and demonstrating his love for them by providing a much better solution.
In the same way, we too can know that we don’t have to wash ourselves, pay for our own sin, offer sacrifices, make deals with God, etc.
So when you go before God in private, and when you go to a physical church, don’t pre-wash. It can lead to more damage than just letting the savior do his work.
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