Lesson from the Septic Tank

I'm just guessing, but I suppose many people in our country have never had the experience of getting a shovel and digging out the dirt around a septic tank lid so the Septic Guy could back up his tank truck and suck the 1500 or so gallons of sewage out.
Step One: have a good idea where the tank lid is. Start digging. The tank is below ground and the top has a lid at least a foot-and-a-half square. Some (ours) have two lids. Its usually a foot or so of digging (Hint: backfill with some sand; next time the digging will be easier.).
Step Two: get out of the way. The Septic Guy gets paid to do the rest and he doesn't need your help. He's got this big tank truck with what can only be described as the world's largest shopvac.
Note: sometime after step two, you have to do what every man has to do.
You have to look. Down into the tank. Where all that you flush down the toilet ends up.
It's interesting.
And, of course, it smells like...well, you know...
Ideally, all you're going to see is what is supposed to be flushed down a toilet; toilet paper and yesterday's ravioli. Except its not as recognizable as that.
In reality, you see things that aren't supposed to be there.
For instance, someone has been eating candy bars and flushing the wrappers. Snickers.
Someone is flushing baby wipes.
I don't know why, but I also saw some small cylindrical white plastic. I'm not sure what it was. It looked like a medicine bottle top. And some other unidentifiable objects made of materials not suitable for septic fields.
So, I've got to have the annual talk with the kids. "Don't flush stuff down the toilet. Or sink, for that matter."

I'ts probably just a coincidence, but I thought about Sunday school class last week. We were learning about prayer. One member mentioned that our prayer requests are typically, "help so-and-so to feel better," or "pray for ____'s health issue." We might even mention that a person has "spiritual needs." But the note was made that we just don't get very personal or vulnerable.

To be rather blunt with you, I'm thinking that our prayers should sometimes be like septic tank cleaning.
We should call God up and and say, "come here and take the lid off the hidden junk in my life and clean it out."
I'm a pastor. I know these things. There is stuff in my life and your life and every Christian's life that just shouldn't be there. And as long as it's hidden and no one can smell it or see it, we figure it can't be doing anyone any harm.
But it is.
See, the stuff that gets flushed into a septic system and shouldn't can be very costly in the long run. It will ruin the field. It'll cost thousands of dollars to put a new one in.
The stuff in a Christian that doesn't belong there is costly, too. We cost Jesus much too much for us to ruin ourselves by ignoring the hidden junk.
I suggest we get more intimate in our prayer lives and let God take a load of... well, you know...out of us. And the sooner the better.
This world needs sweet, real Christians. Let's you and I be just that.