Picture this scenario: You come home with the groceries, put everything where it belongs, and go out for the evening.
When you get home, you decide to have a snack—except the cookies aren't where you thought they were. The next day the cold cuts are missing. Food is disappearing from right under your nose.
To solve the mystery, you decide to set up a hidden camera in your kitchen. That's what a man in Fukuoka, Japan, did. When the camera sent images of an intruder to the man's cell phone, he called the police.
The uninvited dinner guest was a 58-year-old homeless woman. She didn't break into the man's home that day. She had been living there, in an unused closet, for months (Reuters, 30 May 2008).
When I saw the Reuters story, I asked myself, "How could a stranger live in your house for a single day without being detected?"
Then I came to a startling conclusion. We all have someone else living in our "closet"—in many cases, not just for a few months, but for an entire lifetime.
The Bible contains clear instructions on how to keep your house clean:
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2 NLT).
