Bright and Beautiful...

Laine is just fine bathing once a week. She couldn’t care less about black feet, black nails and a dirty face. She “feels” clean. She often says “I took a bath YESTERDAY.” She honestly believes in her heart that she’s clean enough…that she “passes”…


I do this too. ALL THE TIME. Don’t get me wrong I bathe every day! But in a spiritual sense…I do this all the time. I go to God…spend time…repent…come out shiny and new ready to face the world and it’s challenges. I go out, go to school, deal with bills, worry about money and life, come back in dirty…but I don’t FEEL dirty. I don’t see the dirt under my fingernails. So I skip the bath…I skip the restoration…because hey…I’m BUSY…I’m WORKING for him…One day won’t hurt…


I wake up the next day…covered in dirt…face splattered…hair tangled..and I go out…into a world desperate with sin, perversion, hurt, angst…and I LOOK just like THEM…so I blend in…completely….no one gives me a second glance…why should they? They are covered in filth as I am there is no reason to look twice as I do not have anything to offer that they don’t already possess…and herein lies my sin…


I know it is my mandate to love all people…it is my mandate to establish community with His children and shine…but my sin often lies in the fact that I’m so dirty myself that I cannot shine…I cannot be seen as anything different that what they already possess…worry…doubt…fear…anxiety…anger…loss…superiority…judgement…


I will NEVER be any better than any other human being. But GOD is. And when I submit to Him my failings and struggles…I empty me and fill with HIM…


If I were clean from the spiritual practice of relationship and repentance…I would offer peace for worry…I would offer security for doubt…I would offer power for fear…I would offer love for anxiety…I would offer calm for anger…I would offer offerings for loss…I would offer acceptance for superiority…I would offer community for judgement…


These are the signs of a well bathed God Lover…


Colossians 1:10-12 says


“We pray that you’ll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”


God does not intend for us to walk through the world dirty…with gritted teeth…He intends for us to SPILL with joy…


Spill interprets to me to “get everything wet that it touches”… With JOY.


No one should come in contact with me (including my children and family) that does not leave more infused with joy.


Here’s the really interesting part…”thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us.”


I often think that “taking part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for me” should be joyous…it should be free…it should be EASY…


But I find Paul asking God to give us strength to take part…interesting…


Could it be that Paul knew that living in a messed up, human, sinful world would make it difficult to SEE the “bright and beautiful” things He has for us?


Could it be that Paul knew that God Lovers would need to be STRONG and empowered to LOOK for the “bright and beautiful” of the world? Because so much of what we encounter around is us dismal and dirty? ALL of us…believers and NON-believers…


Wow…


So back to the bath…I find for myself that if I do not take my body, heart, mind and soul to the bath of God every morning, I will not lead my day in the “bright and beautiful.” I am more prone to anger. I am more prone to pride. I am more prone to judgement. I am more prone to “busyness”.


The ONLY way for me to live a beautiful life is to bathe daily in the Word and wash my heart in His love and mercy.


This bathing…this ritual…it is yes…first for me and my saving…but then second it makes me a disciple…because it washes the filth that the others around us are trying to escape…it shows them there IS a way to live unfettered. There is a way to live free. And they are made STRONG and empowered to look for their OWN “bright and beautiful”.


Let’s wash behind our ears friends…I want for all of us to dwell in the “bright and beautiful”…


Grace n Peace,


A ~