The race is messy. Like sweaty, sticky, bloody, roll around in the mud messy, and I am not just talking about the physical(although I have woken up to hair soaked with sweat a time or two).
On the Race, it is impossible to have what I would call a “freshly bleached” faith. You can just hide away all your problems and conveniently wipe the stain away with a tide pen. It doesn’t work that way.
The Race is about embracing your filthy, smelly, bug infested, mess.
When I came on the Race, I thought I was clean. I thought I was a good Christian who could endure any problem because “I am strong in Christ” or something like that. But I kept forgetting that God is strong in MY WEAKNESS.
It wasn’t long until I was in over my head, wading in the mud of my problems and feeling like the more I struggled, the deeper I was sucked in.
The Lord showed me that I wasn’t living in intimacy with Him. He showed me that I just wanted to be “Friends with Benefits.”
At first, I was confused by what He was telling me, but as I questioned the Lord, he showed me that a ton of people are “Friends with Benefits” Christians.
To be Friends with Benefits, you want all of the fun without any of the commitment.
You want all of the pleasure but not any of the pain.
You are content with the surface level.
Instead of working hard, you look for short cuts.
You run away when things get messy, instead of fighting your way through the mud.
I realized that I was this way with God.
I wanted Him only when it was convenient for me. His way was hard, and I only wanted Him for what He had to give me rather than having a desire to build relationship with Him.
When I saw a mud puddle down the road, I ran away so I wouldn’t get dirty rather than grabbing His hand and jumping in.
I wanted all the benefits of being a Bride, but all the convenience of being a “friend.”
But this is not what God intended for us. Living with and in God is about COMMITMENT.
A Bride will hold tighter to her husband when things get tough.
A Bride will not hide from her husband or be ashamed of her mess.
A Bride will trudge through the swamp wherever her husband leads her, because she loves Him and trusts Him.
Being a Bride of Christ has a lot of Benefits, but it also has a lot of Responsibility. You have to work to maintain a relationship with anyone, including Jesus.
And many of us hate the work. We want to take the fast track to spiritual maturity and bypass the wisdom and growth along the way.
We want our clothes to stay white when our breakthrough is in the dirt and stains.
The Lord has so much more for us that Crystal Clean Christianity.
He wants us to get messy, and turn to Him when we are at our weakest.
He wants us to grab his hand in the storm when others are turning to run away.
Intimacy is anything but convenient. Sometimes, it even hurts.
But there is nothing like intimacy with the father. There is nothing like being a bride of Christ. There is nothing like muddy, sweaty, bloody, slap you in the face Faith.
Jesus is in he midst of your mess. Let yourself experience it.
