Another Throw Away The Filth

I have to send all of my stuff to Texas.  I came across these shoes that I've had since my feet stopped growing.  The trademark on the soles said 1990.  The shoes leaked, and the soles squeaked on tile floors. But I had put a little oil on them, and they looked okay.  But I struggled to decide whether or not to send them to Texas.  I agonized over the decision.  I couldn't let these fifteen year old shoes go. 

As I was agonizing I remembered a radio preacher saying "Throw away the filth."  He was a screamer.  "THROW AWAY THE FILTH."  At the time, I had no real idea of what he meant.  But as I was staring at those shoes, I think I started to figure it out.

I cared for those shoes because I thought they said something about me.  I thought they showed or proved that I was frugal and conservative and a good steward of my resources.  I wasn't confident enough in my myself that I was really those things, so I needed those shoes to show I was a good man, a good person.  I started to look around and I saw more and more things like that.   More things that meant something to me because I thought they said something about me that probably wasn't true.  These things are the filth that we must throw away.

And there is only one way to really throw away the filth of life and that is fully trusting Jesus Christ.

Acts 16:30-31 (New International Version)

³⁰He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
 ³¹They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."

Get Healthy

I pray, and I am told to "get healthy."

I listened to a priest discuss greediness.  He related it to the stories of people lining up at Wal-Mart on Black Friday for the proverbial $19 DVD player, and the fact that people get trampled at these sales.  He says that kind of material greediness is rampant in today's society.  But he went on to discuss the spiritual greediness that is prevalent in our society.  The fact that many people can't give all of their heart, all of their mind, all of their soul to Christ, to evangelizing, to really doing the work of the Lord.

As I've discussed before, I am not a fan of bashing selfishness.  But there is something to being too spiritually self-centered.  This idea is that we get so caught up in our own lives that we miss our greater connection to God and the surrounding world.

Here is my example:  I just got really upset about a perceived slight.  I was emotional about the fact that people "hadn't treated me right."  I didn't blame them in one sense, but I honestly felt like they had injured me due to their lack of caring.  But all I could think about was me and how "they" had made me feel.  At first, I couldn't find the faith in Christ needed to sustain my will to do His Will.  And that is what spiritual greediness really means.  It is what happens when we lose our faith and only see what is front of us.  And this loss of faith is unhealthy.  Very unhealthy.

A personal relationship with God is necessary.  It is essential.  But a personal relationship with God requires the trust to look past our own day-to-day problems and embrace the big picture that God has painted for us.  Being healthy is this embrace.  Being healthy is this wonderful balance of doing God's Will while also accepting and trusting God's Will.

Heavenly Father,
Help me to be healthy.
Show my Your Ways.
Help me to seek good things and reject bad things.
Help me to control my emotions and care no matter how uncared for I feel.
Lord, help to remember how much You care for me.
It is in Jesus' name I pray,
Amen.