On her first birthday, I plopped my lopsided attempt at a cake in front of her and scooped up my camera. Surely I would have classic pictures of her face smothered in vanilla foundation, her hair streaked with Elmo icing highlights, and both hands wrapped with gloves from Duncan Hines!
But no. She meticulously picked apart her piece of cake, using only a few fingers on one hand and thereby leaving a mere splotch or two of white icing around her lips. I'll have no pictures to embarrass her with when she's being courted by some handsome young man in her 30's. Did 30's slip out?
But I thought about this in lieu of a conversation I had not long ago. A woman had been homeschooling her children for years and volunteering at church whenever she could but she had to return to the workplace. She said "I hate the filth of the world. I hate hearing the language and working in an office full of gossip and back-biting. I always go home feeling so dirty and depressed."
I don't wanna minimize what she goes through each day at all. MANY of us as Christians, do now or have in the past, worked in the world surrounded by people who don't know Jesus. Their lifestyles, habits, conversations, motives, and actions can sometimes be worse than most network TV shows. BUT...where would each of us be without the grace of God?!
I don't necessarily want to change my daughter's disgust for dirt, but I am constantly trying to change her perspective. What if we saw each person as a possibility rather than a problem? Potential for eternity rather than a pitfall for us? The Word does tell us "Greater is He that is within you, than he that is within the world" (1 Jn.4:4). Every person we encounter is an individual opportunity to BE JESUS to them. Does that high of a calling grip you? We often pray for the Lord to send forth laborers into the field, but we don't want to be the laborer. Or we'd like a different field.
But the field was cursed in Genesis due to sin. So when you work in the world, it may be embedded with weeds of wickedness, roots of bitterness, entangled tares and various diseases of the heart. It may be intense spiritual labor on your part (in cooperation with His Spirit) for the Lord to receive a harvest. But what are your tools?
There are too many to list...but here are a few. You have prayer that begins to fertilize the soil and fasting that breaks the enemies hardened ground. You have the Word which will plant seeds and you have the Son which will cause those seeds to grow. "A soft answer" can be a gracious gift with a daily watering of mercy in one form or another. And the greatest gift of all is love. It was the goodness of God that led you to repentance (Rom. 2:4). It may sound trite or oversimplified to you, but when we remember the cross, it should become more clear. I wallowed in more mire, guck, and filth than I would ever want to write about.
And yet, here was God's heart when I was deepest in my sin - Ezek.16:8-10 "Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine," declares the Lord GOD. "Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk." Please read that chapter for yourself. What a love God has for us. Our filth for His forgiveness. Our failure begot His favor. What an exchange.
