Your Dark Stinky Basement

Years ago I leased office space in a charming old historical building in our city. It was a three story affair with nooks and crannies everywhere, including a basement and, beneath the basement, a crawlspace for storage. Several different pastors, counselors and attorneys worked out of this building, all of us proud of its rustic charm.

Until the day when we walked in and got a whiff of something nauseating. We couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it permeated the place. We opened all the windows the air the rooms out, then searched every bathroom and trashcan in the place to find whatever it was that was causing such a stink.

No luck. So we sprinkled scented dust on the carpets  to mask the odor, which was getting stronger by the hour. By the next morning, all our efforts to cover it up had fallen short, and we seriously figured we’d have to close shop until the problem was solved.

Then it became clear that whatever the problem was, it was coming from the basement. Worse yet, it came from the crawl space under the basement, a tiny area that was dark and a little scary. None of us wanted to crawl in there to see what the trouble was, so we instead endured another two days of the smell, hoping against hope it would magically vanish.

Finally we hired a handyman to solve the mystery, and he found that a stray cat had made its way under the house, probably living there for quite awhile, and then for whatever reason had died there as well. The carcass was the problem which, when removed, cured the odor problem.

A man’s heart can be a dark, scary place. Jeremiah described it well:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Deep resentments, old wounds and unspoken fears can lodge pretty deep in there, hiding and festering. And they, too, can give off an odor through the man’s behavior and attitude.

The behavior may really stink, causing people to notice and demand he do something about it. And he may, by stopping the behavior without ever  addressing the problem of the heart that led to it. But that’s what we did when we sprinkled the scented powder on the carpet, only to find it could mask but not eliminate
the odor.

So by all means the wrong behavior should stop, whatever it may be. It reeks; it ruins. But it may also be the symptom of a larger problem hiding under the house, in deep places that should come to light. If so, you’ll never really solve it without taking the time to dive into that uninviting crawlspace and deal with the carcass that’s stuck inside. You can perfume it for awhile, but at some point its decay will overpower the best powder. No wonder David said,

“How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.”
-Psalm 10:12 New Living Translation

Clean before God means clean right down to the crawlspace. May all of ours today be free of carcasses, and ready for inspection.