Gutter Guards

My husband is installing gutter guards on our house.
He actually almost completed the job last year.
He left the gutter in the front of our house open to appease me.
That is where our Christmas lights get hung.

It was a compromise, which I knew would eventually have to come to an end.
The front gutters would get filled with leaves, sticks, seed pods, dirt, and other debris.
When it would rain, there would be a sheet of water coming down near our door.
I knew it was just a matter of time until that gutter would need to be covered, too.

We put Christmas lights on our bushes outside.
But it was always so lovely to see the front of the house lined with lights.
My husband asked me if I wanted to wait another year, but I know he wanted this done.

Of course I am already researching alternative hooks or other ideas.
A solution that does not require a ladder and does not affect the gutter guards.

The gutter guard is an incredibly useful invention.
It is basically a sheet of mesh, filled with holes, that is placed over the gutter.
The small holes allow the water, but not debris, to flow into the gutters.
Cleaning gutters is a thing of the past.

For my husband that is good news.
For my Christmas decorating, it is a little disappointing.
I can’t have it both ways!

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and it desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
(1 John 2:15-17)

My husband is cleaning out fall debris from our front gutters.
We also have Fall debris in our life.
The Fall, when sin entered the world; when man thought he knew better than God.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have gutter guards over our hearts?
Mesh guards that allow Kingdom things to flow through.
Mesh guards that keep worldly things out.

And you were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.  (Ephesians 1:13,14)

The Holy Spirit is our seal, our deposit, and the guard over our heart.
The Holy Spirit teaches, guides, leads, comforts, and protects.
The Holy Spirit allows the Kingdom things to flow through.

As believers, we do not want Fall debris in our lives and hearts.
Fall debris is messy, dirty, and it clogs up the gutter of our heart.
Fall debris makes it difficult for the Living Water to flow smoothly.

Jesus knew the tension we would face as believers.
He prayed for His disciples and for all of us.

I am coming to You now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them. I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
(John 17:13-17)

In the world but not of the world.
Water, but not debris, coming through the gutters.
The Holy Spirit guarding our hearts from the debris of the Fall in our lives.

I never thought about the Holy Spirit as being like a gutter guard.
But He is.
Only He can discern the things that should flow through our lives.
Yet we can still disobey Him.

What if I insisted on putting clips on the gutter guards so I could still have my lights?
What if I poked the clips through the holes, making the tiny holes bigger.
What was meant to protect has now been compromised.
Debris that could not get through when it was intact can now easily clog the gutters.

It is the same with my heart and my soul.
What if I insisted on activities and behaviors that just don’t fit the life of a Christian?
What if I pushed and tried desperately to have it both ways?
What if I disregarded the tension between Kingdom living and worldly living?

I would be clogged with worldly debris.

Clean the gutters of your heart.
Fall debris out!
Living Water in!
You can’t have it both ways!