By Jim Nichols

There was a light pink stain on the kitchen counter. As I have many times, I reached under the kitchen sink for the Comet cleanser powder. I had done this often in my life—wet the spot, sprinkle on a little Comet, rub it lightly with a sponge, and the stain disappears. As I reached under the counter, the Comet was not there. I went to the bathroom and looked under the sink and the Comet was not there. It was also not under the sink in another bathroom. Nor was it present in the garage where there is a stash of various cleansers. Four searches with no success.

As each of us has found in life, of course, when I returned to the first place I had looked (under the kitchen sink), I found it. I had overlooked it at first because it had been moved from its place of prominence from the front of the bottom shelf to an obscure position near the back. What had happened? The plumbers had been there.

The fact that I was looking for Comet has a short back story. In 1947 Colgate-Palmolive Company began marketing the powered cleanser Ajax. I was just a boy at the time, but we had Ajax in the house. In 1956, however, Procter and Gamble Company introduced a competitor, Comet cleanser. My father was working then (and worked for his whole career) for Procter and Gamble. Being the loyal employee I am sure he switched the family from Ajax to Comet. We became a Comet family.

The plumbers had performed several routine maintenance and repair items at our house. In each case they had worked on faucets and sinks in both the kitchen and bathrooms. Adept at crawling underneath the sinks (something that I avoid), they had, of course, removed every item in that space so they could work. While they toiled, they had placed each bottle, jar, and various other containers on the floor. When the plumbers had finished the work under the sink, did they replace all that stuff? Yes, they did. However, they put everything back in a different position. They totally changed any sort of organization that existed. Subsequently, any time we reach for something under the sink, we must sort through all the other items that are there. That is not really a complaint, just a fact.

Two considerations occur. The first is that there are items under the sinks whose presence is questionable. This lotion is no longer liquid, but solid. This prescription expired six years ago. This other medication has a cloudy appearance. Why are there so many shampoo bottles, each almost empty? What can we discard?

The second consideration is to wonder why there is so much total stuff under there at all.

We humans are indeed creatures of habit. This applies not only to sundries under our sinks, but to the psychological and spiritual sundries in our minds and hearts. On occasion we each have an opportunity to reexamine aspects of our lives and we ask questions such as “Why do I believe that? Why am I afraid of that? What caused me to respond that way?”

Is it too much of a stretch to propose that God is cleaning out under our spiritual sinks and causing us to evaluate what is there and why? Is it possible that God is metaphorically saying, “If you want to work with me to accomplish this particular goal, you are going to have to accept that I (God) am going to pull out all this spiritual stuff under your sink and make you look at it clearly. It might have been a useful and important part of your faith at one time, but you have grown to a different spiritual position now and it is time for you to put that belief, stance, position, or argument into the trash.”

Throwing away stuff is difficult. It is painful to admit that items and beliefs we used to hold dear are now inappropriate, perhaps even negative. It may not be the responsibility to evaluate what is under each other’s spiritual sink, but it is the responsibility to evaluate what is under our own.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain