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Take a second and think. When was the last time that you looked into a mirror? Thirty seconds ago? Five minutes ago? Fifteen minutes ago? An hour ago? A couple of hours ago!?! AN ENTIRE DAY!?!?!?! My guess would be somewhere between an hour or so for most people. As for me, I was admiring myself not but five minutes ago. The reason I ask is because I was just thinking about how focused we are on our grooming. I mean haven’t you ever spent an hour in front of yourself, looking at this that and the other? Isn’t image just everything these days… sure seems like it, as if we should always look nice and clean. But I think this idea is a little off…

As a kid, I loved, I mean really loved, playing out in the dirt. My grandparents have a lot of land out in east Texas, and they would always have big piles of dirt for different projects here and there. Well these mountains of dirt became the best playground I ever knew. I would take my toy army men out there, dig tunnels and caves, and have the time of my life. Now by the time that it was time to go inside I was filthy. I looked like Pig Pen. Clouds of dust and dirt would just surround me. It was awesome. And I remember that no matter how long I soaked in the tub, the one place the dirt would never leave, was under my fingernails. And for the longest time I could never understand why my mom would get onto me so much about it. To me, it was just the tell tale sign of an amazing adventure.

Now that I’m older and am always trying to win the attention of the opposite sex, I’ve learned to keep the dirt from out of underneath my fingernails. In truth I don’t really do a lot anymore where I even get near dirt. Then I started paying for my clothes so I knew better than to go jump into big dirt piles. Why mess up clothes that I worked so hard to buy? It’s not that I wouldn’t enjoy it, it’s just that I guess I’ve grown up and it would be “below me” and wouldn’t really be worth the mess.

How often do we treat our faith exactly like this? This is a great quote from a book called Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2:

It was that very flowing tide where Jesus has commanded his disciples to live. Out there where the city gambles. Where no one believes. Out there among the thieves. In the face of abuse and mockery. Where love violently dies. Out there at their daily Calvary, to take up their crosses and follow. Not to holler but to follow. … [Jesus] said, “Follow me into a daily dynamic of dilemma where they will misunderstand you and castigate you and call you all kinds of things. It’ll be messy, and every decision will not always be on the white or black side of grey, but follow me. Get involved. Where I walked.”

This is absolutely so true. I mean it seems that a lot of us as Christians were at one point ambitious, wide-eyed, dreamers, who at some point stopped going near the dirt. I am very guilty of this. Sometimes I’ll get inspired and be ready to change the world, to be a light in the darkness, to face unimaginable odds and risk. I get stoked about the adventure. But then there are other times where I start backing away. Though it’s tempting I’ll be unwilling to take the risk of getting dirty in an adventure. I mean after all these are really nice clothes, I wouldn’t want to mess them up. This is a pretty nice life, I wouldn’t want to mess it up. And these thoughts will lead me to the point where I don’t even go near the dirt anymore. I’ll get away from the daily dynamic of dilemma and stay inside in the air conditioning.

But there are some serious things that we really need to take the time to look at here. The clothes (our lives) are a gift. They aren’t ours because of anything that we did. God gave us this life to enjoy, to glorify Him, but we get caught up in glorifying the one leading the life/wearing the clothes. God did not intend for us to live our lives inside of a church… otherwise he wouldn’t have created the earth. He would have created a giant cathedral. He wouldn’t have made mountains, but steeples. The point being that God gave us these lives to live so that He can take us on an amazing adventure… out in the world! What we have to realize, is that going on an adventure with God means taking risks, getting dirty, and doing things that society would say is “below us.” We have to accept that dirt under the fingernails can be a good thing and we have to step beyond the reservations we have about getting dirty. God is the definition of Holy and clean, and He came down to this mess of a world to live along side us. He was born in a filthy barn, lived among thieves and prostitutes, and was killed on a trash heap. But Jesus knew it was worth it to get a little dirty in order to reunite us with our Father, with God.

Lets start following Christ where He walked. We may end up looking like Pig Pen, but it will definitely be worth it.

Just Sayins All…

Rusty