This past Saturday, I decided to “Swiffer” the entire house. It felt like a deep clean kind of Saturday, requiring a little extra time and effort. Not even halfway into the cleaning frenzy, I noticed I had more dust than I realized. The more I swept and Swiffered, the more it seemed like dust bunnies were trying to run free from every corner. Maybe you feel like you need to run free? To run free from this world’s constant tension or the mundane? Finding more beyond the day-to-day things is possible, though, as we dust away the old and look for the new.

I’ve been resting in the Gospels for months now, looking at what Jesus says and does. To be honest, I can let the dust settle on the familiar passages of Scripture, but I sense and know that sometimes going back to even what we know can teach us something new.

Jesus didn’t send His disciples out without advice. He gave them instructions worthy of following.

As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.

Matthew 10:12-14

Jesus spoke truth-filled advice you and I can carry through our days, too.

Shake off the dust. That’s not always easy to do. Maybe you want to stay, waiting for the warm welcome. Perhaps it’s hard to understand why they can’t seem to accept your advice that you know will help them.

As hard as it can be, sometimes we want to fix and change others who are struggling, but it’s not always you or I who can do that. We don’t have to stay there. That doesn’t mean we leave grumbling under our breath because they didn’t want to receive the truth of Jesus’ love. We turn around and return to a place of peace. I can tend to stay in that place, wanting to help, but if the peace doesn’t rest there, I will only become exhausted.

Let your peace return to you.

Entering without a warm welcome doesn’t mean you failed. Eventually, you will enter a house with someone longing for the peace you carry. Don’t give up. Keep “Swiffering.”

Thinking of my own house, on the other hand, I know I can freely dust away. Sometimes I allow the dust to build up. Tensions of this deliver-food-to-my-door-now culture or the simple mundane of ordinary life can cause the dust to accumulate. I want to dust off the offenses of my heart and anything offensive in me so that when that person struggling wants help and welcomes me in, I can be in a place to offer peace.

The more dust of my own that I can allow Jesus to sweep up, the more I can be a place of peace to help someone else.

There will be moments when we need to shake off the dust. There will also be times when we have to Swiffer away some of our own dust. Either way, there is something far greater than we can imagine that is beyond the dust.