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The Spiritual Appeal of Time-Lapse Cleaning Videos

Deb Koster

Who would want to watch a video of someone shoveling their driveway or mowing their lawn? Apparently a lot of people!

A friend mentioned how therapeutic they find watching videos showing a car being detailed or a lawn being mowed and I can’t help but see the common threads all these videos share. There are even simulator games like PowerWash, where you can play with a virtual pressure washer, or Lawn Mowing, where you can mow a virtual lawn, all without the mess and time that those jobs take in real life. Why might these transformations appeal to us? And might they even speak to us on a spiritual level?

I think I could lose myself for quite a while watching videos of gardeners cleaning up overgrown landscaping. In a world where our work can feel relentless and progress can be hard to see or measure, these videos show restoration and bring us instant gratification. These time-lapse videos allow us to see order being restored and hidden beauty revealed. Lovely shrubs are found under brambles, while beautiful walkways emerge from under layers of snow or growth and grime. These videos reveal what was hiding under all the mess, so that order and beauty comes back into focus. It is no wonder why these videos are so therapeutic and addictive to watch.

Being Washed Clean

The cleansing power of water captures our attention. Pressure washing (or power washing) is a visual reminder of the cleansing that the Holy Spirit does in each of our lives. When a neglected space is thoroughly scrubbed, you witness the power of cleansing. Our hearts need the washing of the Spirit to remove our tendency toward sin, which is grimier than a lichen-covered patio. In baptism, we are washed clean. Day by day we are made new by the ongoing cleansing of the Spirit at work in our lives helping us to become more and more like Jesus.

The Appeal of Order

Living in chaos can be emotionally challenging. Our external environment can feel messy at times and cause our internal environment to feel distressed as well. Sometimes amid anxiety and grief, we neglect caring for the spaces around us. Those who step in to restore order point the road back to healing. When we are able to step in and take control of different corners of our lives, it can bring us a good deal of peace. As we get intentional about bringing order to our world, we can enjoy our surroundings rather than feeling stressed by them. God created so much good order in creation. As we look at all God has made we see the thoughtfulness of the Creator’s plan, a plan echoed in our own orderliness.

Collecting Can Become Too Much

We live in a consumerist culture that always encourages us to own more things. Yet, our hobbies and interests can become too much at times. Some of these videos show the removal of collected things that have been neglected and forgotten. Our good intentions bump up against the reality that we don’t have the time to do all the things we dreamed of and our space can’t accommodate all of the stuff that excites us. We need to get realistic about when enough is enough. Christians are warned about storing up wealth, which moths and vermin will consume. Accumulating earthly things becomes problematic. The true blessing comes with focusing our hearts on heavenly things.

Removing the Mess

So often within these videos, someone removes debris to make the area functional again. Trash is removed and surfaces are restored to their original intention. For us too, the neglected corners of our lives can hide messes that can become hazardous when left unaddressed. Jesus invites the weary and heavy-laden to come to him and lay down their heavy loads. As we remove the toxic things from our lives, we are able to flourish once again as we find peace in letting Jesus into our mess. We all have pain that we prefer would stay hidden. Yet, we can heal by addressing those wounds rather than letting them fester. While we may feel like hiding our mess, addressing our weaknesses and vulnerabilities can help us learn and grow. Just like when a clogged drain is unplugged, addressing the messiness in our lives can bring restoration.

Beauty is Present

There is beauty in God's world waiting to be discovered. Cleansing a filthy rug reveals the beauty woven into the rug by its creator. Layers of moss are removed to reveal the shingles on the roof. Just as the gardener removes rubbish that reveals intricate stonework or a pressure washer discovers the beautiful colors of a playground that had been lost under the muddy feet of scores of children, we possess beauty as ones made by our Creator God. Beauty is present in all that God has made and we have the opportunity to be God’s agents of restoration in this world by bringing that beauty into focus.

Work Takes Time

A valuable thing to understand is that real progress and healing do not happen as quickly as they appear to in these videos. Time-lapse videos can give us the illusion that restoration is a quick and easy process when in reality it takes a great deal of time. As agents of renewal in this world, we get to participate in extending grace and compassion to all of God’s creation, but we don’t always see immediate change. The healing of relationships and of the world rarely happens quickly. These videos can give us the illusion of a quick restoration when in fact the process is dirty, sweaty, and often long.

Caring in Action

These videos are often an act of care for someone in need. It may be an elderly neighbor who physically can’t shovel their driveway or perhaps it is someone struggling emotionally who lacks the capacity to keep their space tidy. Even in the videos where someone is just doing the job they are paid to do, we see how their work blesses others and shows compassionate care for the world that God has made. We are called to be good stewards of God’s world and to show love to our neighbor. We have the opportunity to show our gratitude to God through the love that we demonstrate in our actions. So while we may see these videos as mindless time-wasters, there are many ways that they are pointing us back to God’s redemptive story.

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At Think Christian, we encourage careful cultural discernment. We recognize and respect that many Christians choose not to engage with pop culture that contains particular content, such as abuse, sex, violence, alcohol or drug use, or that employs the use of coarse language. To that end, we suggest visiting Common Sense Media for detailed information regarding the content of the particular pieces of pop culture discussed in this article.

Topics: Online