A faith wardrobe

Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination. 

(Joseph B. Wirthlin)

But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise. (Galatians 3:25-27)

Journeys all have a destination in mind. We may not clearly know the destination when we set out, but we have a general idea. As we go along this journey with Christ, we have a general idea of being washed, made clean, getting a fresh start, but do we know where that 'fresh start' will take us? Not always! We might imagine it just means we 'do over' what we haven't done so well thus far. It could mean we take a totally different path than we had been on for a long, long time. When God asks for us to take a new path, are we intimidated by those first steps? Probably, but as we take the first one and then the next, it gets easier to take the subsequent ones, doesn't it? What do we do when we prepare for a journey? Don't we prepare what we will wear along the way? As always, Christ doesn't disappoint in that regard either! He prepares a new 'wardrobe' of faith that 'grows with us' as we continue along this journey with him.

Imagine the clothes you wore as a teenager or young person. Are you still able to fit into those clothes? Not many of us are, but even if we are able to 'fit', do they 'fit' our life any longer? Not usually! We get 'new clothes' that 'fit' our present circumstances. If we work construction, we own a hardhat, some dungarees, and maybe a pair of leather work gloves. If we work in healthcare, we own scrubs, solidly good shoes that take us the miles we walk each day, and perhaps a stethoscope. If we are a stay-at-home mom, we likely have clothes that 'fit the day', depending on if we are cleaning the house or going to the grocer to restock the family's food items. As we grow older, comfortable fitting clothes and shoes replace business suits, tight jeans, and high heels! The wardrobe changes as we 'grow' in life. In much the same way, our 'faith' wardrobe grows with us. We learn to 'put on' deeper, well-anchored faith as we discover new things along this journey, don't we?

Faith is an ever-expanding thing. We don't 'put on' the same faith today as we did yesterday, and it is quite likely the faith we start the day out with may require us to 'put on' new faith as we go through the day. Faith is never stagnant, just as the journey is ever changing. We must allow Jesus to 'adapt' our faith wardrobe as the journey evolves. Just sayin!

A lifebuoy is offered

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Colossians 3:5, 10-11)

Put to death...put on your new nature. These are very clear instructions - put the old away, put on the new. Stop going back to the old - stick with the new. How? Be renewed - we need a renewal process to occur. It is not enough to just say 'yes' to Jesus - one must press in to know him well, forsaking all manner of sin, and embracing this new life in Christ with all the passion we once put into pursuing our sin!

In counseling realms, we call this the 'put off - put on' dynamic. We 'put off' some behavior that is not good for us to pursue and we replace it with one that is honorable, upright, and 'good'. We stop and we start. Seems pretty basic, doesn't it? Yet, we have the hardest time with this when it comes to putting it into operation in our lives. As silly as it may sound, when a counselor advises us to write a letter, putting all our thoughts, hurts, and even our anger into that letter, then rip it up, there is a cathartic effect to that task.

While God doesn't ask us to 'write a letter' putting in all our hurts and hangups, he does ask us to bring those things to him, allowing him to be the one to 'destroy' them in our lives. He asks for us to have a catharsis - where sin once dwelt, let it go, be done with it, move on. Put something else in its place - the Word of God, a new action that brings honor into our lives, or even just the peace he gives when we finally let it go. He moves heaven and earth to help us be free - why do we still hold so tightly to those things that he asks us to purge from our lives with his help?

If a drowning man was offered a lifebuoy, do you think he'd reject it and just keep sinking deeper until he finally drowned? Only if that was his ultimate intent! Most of us are drowning in our sin, not sure where our help will come from, but when Jesus offers us that lifebuoy, will we take it? I think so! When he offers us a way to be free of the things that weigh us down and give us such trouble in life, do we let them go? If we are smart, we would! Just sayin!

How are you dressing these days?

Recently my work environment changed their dress code a bit, lightening up on the restrictions on wearing jeans to work. In fact, the term "dress for you day" really says it all. We are now allowed to come to work in nice jeans - the kind that are free of rips and tears - making it very comfortable to work. It isn't that I really wanted to ditch all my dress clothes, but there are just times when I am doing little more than sitting in front of the computer working on some projects and jeans are quite comfy. I wonder how we are dressing for our day when it comes to our 'spiritual clothing', though? If we were to judge our 'spiritual attire' by the attitude we see exhibited while we are shopping for some 'out of stock' items, or our willingness to make adjustments while we go through crisis of some sort, we might just find we are a little 'under-dressed'. It seems some have forgotten to get dressed at all!

Since you are all set apart by God, made holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a holy way of life: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Clothe yourselves - that means that 'getting dressed' spiritually is our responsibility. God doesn't dress us for our day. We do! That means we spend time in prayer, contemplation of the Word of God, and in exploring where it is we might make adjustments in our character as he reveals things to us. We take the steps to 'get dressed' and he provides the wardrobe! We don't have to be the ones to create the wardrobe, but we do have to take the steps to actually put it on. Five garments that suggest a great deal about 'dressing for our day' when it comes to 'putting on' the character of Christ in our lives. It isn't hard to see how one of these 'garments' left off can drastically impact how our day will go and how our choices can be affected by leaving off even one of these!

Compassion and kindness might be thought of by some as the exact same garment - like putting on two pairs of underwear or socks. Compassion is our ability to 'feel something' in a way that moves us into action. We see the need of another and are met with the feelings of what that need creates within us. We are moved by compassion to take actions of kindness. Kindness is the action of helping wherever there is a need. Without compassion, kindness is kind of left out of the picture. If we don't connect with the need of others, we seldom find a way to meet it. Think of compassion as that which moves us into the kind actions.

Humility, gentleness, and patience are also similar garments, but each uniquely 'adorning' us in some very specific ways. Humility is more than a lack of arrogance. Humility is the garment we put on that helps us see the needs around us - to put on the very nature of God that connects with the needs of others and then looks for the ways to meet those needs. Humility connects us with the will of God - knowing when to act, how to act, and why it is we are acting. Gentleness is directly linked to humility because our actions would be harsh if we were not clothed in humility. We'd find ourselves being rather 'critical' and 'unloving' toward others were it not for having humility put on before we try to adorn ourselves with gentleness. Gentleness is the outcome of humility. 

Patience might just be the garment we have the hardest time putting on, because it means we will wait for the will of God. We will trust when it seems hardest to trust. Think about that time you knew someone had a need, you knew how to meet that need, wanted to meet it, but then you didn't know the right timing to meet the need. Too early and they might just miss out on some lesson God wanted them to learn themselves. Too late and they might be so frustrated they miss the blessing all together. Knowing the right timing in life is important. Patience is a hard garment to wear, but it is probably one of the most important because it kind of holds the key to what we do with all the other garments we have put on today! Just sayin!

A whole new wardrobe

My first week in the military was kind of interesting. Arriving at Fort Jackson on a chartered bus that had picked up a whole bunch of us in the wee hours of the morning on that October day in 1976, the 'unknown' caused all of us more than a little trepidation. As we unloaded our suitcases and gathered around it became clear this would be a life-changing venture! In rather short order, the orders were being barked out to divide each of us into groups and then serving to usher us off to our temporary housing. The dawn came way too early and those jeans, tennis shoes, and t-shirts were all exchanged for olive drab shirts, socks, caps, and pants, white undershirts, and black boots. All the same, no one standing out any longer as unique. Those clothes we brought along for the journey were all taken from us, locked away until our final day at boot camp, never to be worn again until we were officially finished 'becoming soldiers'. Why did they insist on clothing us with the same uniform? Why was it we couldn't just wear our jeans and t-shirts? I think it was because they were showing us we 'belonged' to them now!

You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Now, in Christ, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or free, male or female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26-28 ERV)

In much the same way, our 'baptism' into Christ results in an exchange of 'clothing' of sorts. We have all our dirty and torn garments of sin removed and we receive the robes of righteousness in their place. We are marked out as no longer belonging to sin, but to righteousness - to God himself. We might forget this exchange of 'attire' because it isn't like we actually go to the closet and pull out those garments everyday, but maybe we need to begin to think of it that way. Every day dawns with a chance to 'put on' again the righteousness of Christ. It isn't that we are getting 'saved' all over everyday, but that we are reminded of whose we are by the garments we are adorned with for that day's battles. What are our garments? What do they resemble? If you begin to examine them, you might just get a little insight into how much God wants us to see ourselves no longer as we were, but what we have become!

Grace is a garment, effectively covering over our sin and removing it in much the same way an undergarment would cover over the less 'sightly' parts of our body. Truth is like that green cap we were issued in the military - covering over our minds and surrounding them in such a way we are surrounded with what will counteract all untruth. Peace is like the socks and boots we wear everyday, feet protected, steps ordered, the chaos of sin no longer causing us to stumble and fall. Chest protected by God's infusion of fresh faith - heart renewed, spirit uplifted, and emotions brought into perfect adjustment. Freedom is marked by the pants we put on - for they allow us to move unhindered and with agility. There are probably a lot of 'righteousness characteristics' we could use to describe our 'new garments', but these are just a few to get you to thinking about what God gives in the way of 'righteousness garments'.

We don't put on new garments over old. Maybe this is why the military took away all the old and gave us only that which was new - to remind us we were being made into something new. God does something similar in giving us his garments of righteousness - reminding us we are being made into something new. Our part is to give up the old and to adorn ourselves with the new. We might want to return to the old if they weren't removed from us. The old isn't going to 'leave us' unless we let it go. We have to be willing to forsake the old to take on the new. Getting anything new is only of benefit to us if we actually put it to use! Put on the garments of righteousness God has given today. Mind twirling, all manner of noise pestering your thoughts all day - put on truth and observe how well your thoughts begin to order themselves. Heart churning, emotions jumping here and there - adorn yourself with the peace of God and see how settled you become. Put on - but don't forget to allow the old to be 'locked away' so you don't return to that closet any longer! Just sayin!

A full wardrobe

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. (2 Peter 1:4 MSG)

I have heard Christians say they don't have what it takes to live a righteous life. They bemoan the issues they still have with temptation and then when compromise inevitably hits them full in the face, they seem to say, "I told you so!" It is as though they forget these words of truth - EVERYTHING that goes into a life of pleasing God HAS BEEN given to us. There is NOTHING we haven't been given already. Maybe we just haven't PUT ON what it is we are already provided!

To illustrate this point, consider your closet or chest of drawers for a moment. How many shirts do you have in the closet? Just a ball park number will do - you don't really have to go count them. Then consider how many pair of socks you have in your drawer. How many pairs of pants are in your closet? Are some blue, others black, and maybe some even brown? You have a variety of stuff to wear don't you? Yet, how many mornings do you stand in front of those clothes and mentally declare you don't have anything to wear?

It isn't the lack of clothing that is the issue, it is the desire to put on what you have at your disposal! You have lots of clothes - you choose to see 'no choice' within the closet. You don't have a lack of anything - everything you need is right there in front of you. You are just choosing not to wear any of it! Everything we need to live godly and upright lives is right there in front of us - we choose to not put it on and then complain we don't have what we need!

The majority of us will choose an outfit from the closet for the day - not too many of us choose to just walk around naked! We might go to some particular pair of pants, socks, and shirt more than others - because they are comfortable for us and we are familiar with how they fit, make us feel, and how others see us in them. Similarly, we are content to go to certain things Christ has provided for our walk with him very frequently, but there are others we shy away from because we don't know how they will 'fit' our lives, or how others will see us 'within' them.

Sometimes the outfit I feel the least comfortable wearing is the one I get the most compliments on! The level of comfort we have 'wearing' what God gives us isn't always the determining factor of how well it 'fits' us. It could just be that thing God has been asking you to 'put on' in your life is the very thing that will bring out some element of grace and beauty that has been hidden until you do! Just sayin!