SEVEN-Clothing Week: i came into this week just a little smug. after all, i'm not shackeled by the bondage of outward appearance. not me. i felt a little sorry for some of the others though. poor girls. they really have some work to do on their issues. then THIS happened... I totally flipped out when i came to the realization that i'd worn 6 of my 7 sanctioned clothing items on the first day. My funeral suit & shoes and my red summer blast t-shirt (forced on me by children's ministry) with jeans and flip flops. THANK GOODNESS i found out i would be off work one day during the week. At this point i'm just thankful Jen didn't mess with my make-up (shudder). who's got issues??? this girl.
Pride. that's my uniform. Pride accessorized by jealousy. i want to be thin and tan and cute and well dressed, shopping at the little boutiques. And this desire is motivated by nothing holy. nothing innately good. not because i want to please Jesus in any way. it's purely motivated by wanting to be liked OR wanting to be envied by someone I DON'T LIKE! Golly gee wiz I'm a cold sloppy mess. (i'd say hot mess because that sounds much trendier, but there's nothing cute and trendy about where i am right now) i have one "friend" that makes me so mad because every time i see her she's wearing something new (that's my exaggerated assessment, not truth). Shouldn't she care more about the poor??? Doesn't she realize how self-absorbed she is???? Righteous Anger? Nothing but jealousy. i'm thinking clothing week needs to be extended a few more days. i have way too much work to do here.
So just how do i take off this garment of pride--this adornment of jealousy? It fits so well and has become so comfortable! James says if i humble myself, He will lift me up. That's the one thing God won't do for me-the humbling part. It's my deal. my choice. But then He promises to do the lifting part. When I'm embarrassed, i just want to hide. This past week i made a ghastly mistake at work. I put the WRONG time for a funeral service in the paper! it was awful. my first thought was how can i cover this up? How can i blame the newspaper?? But there was no way out. i had to own it. i did. but it was no fun. i hid out in my office the rest of the day. avoided my boss as much as possible. apologized at least 4 times. i soon came to realize that what bothered me most was how incompetent it made me "look," not feeling bad for the family whose service time was wrong, or for the people who may have missed it or been inconvenienced by the error. i looked bad. poor me.
Pride is so ugly. take it off. throw it away. You know what's pretty? a gentle spirit. Phil. 4:5 says, "Let your gentle spirit be known by everyone." the one thing we're allowed to show off! Here's the Msg. version: "Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them, not against them." Now that's a beautiful outfit. accentuated by pearls of Grace
yes...i do believe clothing week needs to go another week-haven't even gotten to the poor garment industry workers and the kids in Haiti wearing Halloween costumes!
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