Have you ever been so dirty that it was very difficult to become clean? When I think of this sort of thing I think of working on an automobile, crawling under a car in overalls and emerging covered in grease and oil which takes specialized cleansers and many baths to remove.
Have you ever thought about your life this way? The Bible is replete with teachings on this subject, telling us that, as one Pastor in Dallas puts it "even on your best day - you deserve Hell". Isaiah 64:6 tells us,
" But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away."
Intrinsically we all know this, but our lives on this earth cause us to build up such a crust of self-deception that we no longer feel its effect. I remember once working for a grease remediation company. After closing I would climb up on top of restaurants and spray acid down their ventilation shafts and blow all of the latent grease into a big vat down in the restaurant. inevitably as much grease would end up on the floor as in the vat and it would take me hours to clean it. It would take me days to remove the oil and smell from my clothes and body. Sometimes I was so tired that I would just arrive home, kick off my shoes, loosen my belt and drop ont the floor and fall asleep; I was so tired the stench and the stickiness of the grease didn't matter.
Our lives become this way, when we spend time apart from God and begin wallowing around in the mud of living - through which we become just like all the other pigs. Orwellian thoughts aside, this isn't a very good way to live. Even a raccoon washes himself before every meal. The washing most of us need is not however, physical. Rather, it is spiritual and requires daily exercise in order to be effective. When I have gone a day without kneeling before Christ (the real one, not the one hung in effigy in some churches) I can feel the spiritual mud building up around me. Frustration sets in, anger becomes common and I begin to think and do things which are contrary to God and my well being.
St. Paul put it like this, " For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do". The evil of our lives begins to take on a life of its own and to drown us in its weight. Sin is very burdensome; anyone who is honest will agree with me. The greatest weight is the one which we deemed lightest but which is in reality very heavy. Ministers suffer from this because they keep everything to themselves, thinking that if they act like humans, people may start to believe they actually are! Imagine that! Pastors and ministers ought to be looked upon like postmen - be glad to see them no matter what they deliver, and don't pay them too much and don't expect them to hang around and open all of your mail for you.
This sticky, tar-filled world could use another Fred Rogers. He used to help us feel less sticky and backed it up with substance, not the facade of Hollywood where some actor plays Hannibal Lecter one month and St. Paul the next.
But Fred Rogers couldn't have helped anyone without Christ. Most people probably had no idea that he was a Christian. They should have, because it is only Christians who can be cleaned. Notice I didn't say who ARE clean. Are, denotes a state of being and no one IS clean here on this rock, but Jesus can and does come and clean us, inside and out. There really is no other way.
Won't you spend some time today becoming clean? You can't do it by listening to some preacher on tape or reading a popular Christian book. You can only do it the way the Ancient King David did it - on your knees, asking God to "create in me a clean heart".
