Challenge #7: CLEAN

Probably one of the best feelings in the world is a hot shower after a 3-day camping trip.

It’s just a fact.

Sure, being from Montana I’m a little biased, but it’s still true! You return with sore feet, a really bad case of bed-head, and aches along the waist and shoulders from schlepping your 45-pound pack through 20 miles of alpine nothingness. Due to the fact that you’ve grown accustomed to the over-ripe smells of unbathed humanity, you can’t exactly smell yourself, which truly is a blessing. But once you finally peel the remnants of your expired clothing from your body and turn on the hot water… words simply can not describe. Honestly, I always use every drop of hot water in the house because I literally can not make my body leave the shower stall.

Clean.

Ironically, as a child I hated baths. I was thankful that there was only enough energy within my parents to bathe all 5 of their children just once a week. And of course, that bath was always on Saturday night. But man, we hated that bath. We resented it, resisted it, ran from it…

We liked being dirty.

It’s a human characteristic. As a young person in today’s world, there is something intriguing, tempting, exciting about maintaining a little bit of dirtiness. It’s kind of like a good scar – something to show off and brag about.

Of course, as a young Christian this yearning doesn’t seem to change, except that we must either resist it, or… hold it in secret. Most of us earnestly desire the former, but sometimes we eventually succumb to the latter. We become keenly aware of the rules and our task becomes a little more covert – we want to play with the dirt, maybe even get a little muddy… but then hide it. Some of us hide it really, really well...

The interesting part of those Saturday night baths was this: after we finally found ourselves in the tub, and after multiple scrubbings and latherings, and after watching the water fade to a milky brown, and once we jumped from the tub and ran out of the bathroom, streaking through the living room squeaky clean… we felt great!

Clean.

Clean actually feels… good.

Are you dirty? What secrets are you holding? I know “cleanliness” sounds about as fun as a Saturday night bath. But God has called us to live lives that are no longer stained by the mud of this world. Are you willing to confess it? Are you willing to give your secret sins to Him? Sure, Jesus’ grace covers your filth… but are you willing to let go of it yourself?

Challenge #7: Let it go. Rid yourself of the secrets, the spiritual espionage that has taken hold of your life. Confess your dirty secrets. Confess them to God. Write them down. Share them with each other if you can… but even if you can’t, at least send a postcard to Him with your confession. Keep it anonymous and mail it to PostSecret. Just write the following address on your postcard: PostSecret; 13345 Copper Ridge Rd.; Germantown, MD 20874.

In Romans, Paul explains to his reader, “What shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Through Jesus Christ we walk in a “newness of life”! His blood washed away our sins! But this does not give us opportunity to keep living filthy lives, always counting on His sacrifice to repeatedly cleanse us! We must choose to live differently.

Will you occasionally step in the muck? Of course. You will get dirty. You will stain your shirt, tear your jeans, get mud on your beautiful feet – and then try to hide all of it…

But trust me – it sure feels good to get clean.

If you have any thoughts on this challenge, please write them below.



Thursday's Challenge #8: SUPERHEROES