Happy New Year a few days late

I am not a procrastinator.  If I have a task, I want it done to completion. I don’t want to wait.  Or be distracted by some other task.  So, why am I day late undecorating the Christmas tree?  A few days late to wish everyone Happy 2019? 
 
Here is the story:  The dryer in our condo is against inside walls so the exhaust goes up through the roof rather than through the side wall.  If the exhaust is through the side wall it is easy to see the damp air and lint escape the dryer.  When the vent is on the roof – not so much.  It seemed to us (me really) it was taking a very long time to dry our clothes so last fall, before the renters arrived, we pulled the dryer out of its cubby and cleaned the buildup lint from the piping.  Of course, that provided some relief.  The condo became our permanent home late in June.  It was hot and humid and drying clothes, of course, took longer, and I patiently restarted the drying process as often as necessary. 
 
Then our kids came for Christmas and slept at friends’ condo.  They brought the sheets and towels to our place for laundering.  My daughter assumed sheets fell into the category of ‘bedding’ on the wash cycle choices causing the washer not to spin-dry the load nearly as much as other settings.  It took hours to dry the sheets!  Then the towels, then our normal washing.  The dryer was so hot I feared the fabric would catch afire!  Before I washed the final load we disconnected the dryer again.  Several cups of water laced with lint gushed out of the vent hose!  We cleaned the hose and verified there was no lint in the pipes. We speculated the water had gotten into the vent pipe during the recent heavy rains.  I washed the last load of sheets and tossed the damp, not wet, clothes into the dryer.   Again, it took several cycles to dry the clothes though there was plenty of heat when I opened the dryer door.
 
The next morning my husband (dh) asked me how the drying went.  I said ok but not great.  I did my best not to whine.  To pacify me, he determined he would ask the roofers (did I mention our roof leaked with the heavy rain?) to check the vent from the roof when they repaired the leak.  Little did we know they had repaired the roof several days previously while we were away.  Upon learning that, dh got out the ladder, climbed to the roof and investigated the dryer’s roof vent. 
 
And what a surprise!  The vent was protected from birds and squirrels with a screen.  The screen was blocked with an inch-thick pad of years of packed lint build up! The water in the hose was a result of water not carried out the vent because of the buildup rather than the rain coming into the vent pipe.  Crazy isn’t it?
 
And much like our lives.  We clean out the big stuff: those sins and habits that are obvious.  Sometimes we are surprised by what we find when we scrounge around in the detritus of our lives; and, although it may be messy to confess and make reparations, once it is out in the open the cleanup can begin. It is much more difficult to even notice those tiny little indiscretions, unforgivenesses, white lies, or sinful thoughts.  If we don’t notice them, they can clump together, get caught in the screen of our public persona.  Eventually they have created a barrier blocking our relationships with each other, with God, and with ourselves.
 
My 2019 desire for you and for me is a keen awareness of the lint-like sins in our lives and, with God’s help, to remove the barriers built up in years past and to prevent their reoccurrence in the up-coming year.