(My appologies for the cheesy photo. I couldn’t resist.) 😉
I have a vest that I bought years ago in Lake Placid, NY. It’s probably the only vest I’ve ever owned and I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw it. (Fortunately, it was on sale.) Following one of my nights of binge drinking and being careless, I found my vest…on the floor of my car…with orange Pedialite all over it! “Pedialite?”, you say? Yes, well, an old friend once clued me into the beauty of Pedialite and how well it hydrates you after a night of drinking, thus lessening the severity of the always dreaded hangover. So I had Pedialite in the back of my car…that I had bought to wear off the hangover from a night a few days prior. That’s right. Not only did I drink too much, but I planned on drinking too much. (Memories like this make me so, so glad that I’m not in that place anymore.) So, there I was with my Pedialite soaked vest and I was crushed. I was so mad at myself that I: A. Left the Pedialite in the car. B. Left my vest on the floor of my car. and C: drank so much that I needed Pedialite in the first place. So I took my vest and put it in a drawer and did nothing with it. I knew if I washed it, it wouldn’t be the same. I was affraid to dry clean it because I didn’t think it would come out. So it sat…and sat…and sat. About a year later, I moved to Colorado and still had hopes that I would be able to get this stain out of my vest. My grandparents suggested getting it dry cleaned. I said, “No. No. No. The stain is too deep and it’s been there too long. There’s no way they’ll get it out now. Plus, it won’t be as soft once I wash it…I should just get rid of it.” They insisted that we at least try before I toss it…after all, it WAS my favorite vest. So they took it to the dry cleaners…and the stain didn’t come out. They suggested we actually wash it in the washing machine. At this point, I lost all hope and decided I had nothing to loose and we might as well try. I had little faith that this would work since the stain was so deep and the dry cleaners couldn’t even get it out. My grandfather kept encouraging me though, “Well, let’s just try it and see. You never know.” A few days later I got a call from my grandfather, “Tia, the stain came out! It’s gone! And on top of that, it’s just as soft as it was when you bought it!” I couldn’t believe it!! I got my vest back!
So. I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m telling this randomly odd story. I wore this vest to work this morning and it got me thinking about this story. How many times do we go through life with “stains” from our past that we “ignore” because we fear they are too deep to deal with? We stuff it in a drawer and ignore it and it sits there until something enevitably digs it up. You’re faced with your past decisions and you think, “I already dealt with this. Where is this coming from? Why is this coming up now?” Then we contemplate, LONG and HARD, about weather or not to put it back in the drawer or press in to what God’s doing and actually…gasp…deal with it. We look at our “stains” and think, “No way. They’re too deep. They’ve been there too long. There’s no way I can deal with that now. There’s no way I can be freed from that.” So we doubt ourselves…because we immediately think, “What am I going to do with this?” Rather than, “What’s God going to do with this?”
I can’t help but think of the irony that the dry cleaner couldn’t get it out, but the simple family washing machine could. Which makes me think of another metaphore. How many of us seek counsel from our friends, family, colleagues, etc. BEFORE we go to God? I know I do this. I go to the phone before I go to the throne. We put such faith and high hope in other people when, in reality, the only thing that can truly remove those stains is the blood of Jesus.
God revealed to me that this vest, in a way, represents my sinful past. My past of partying, being irresponsible and just not caring. Sometimes we have “stains” from our past and we don’t understand how they got there. I didn’t have a stain on my vest from the tears that I cried. I didn’t have a stain on my vest from the alchohol I drank. I didn’t have a stain on my vest from the sweat of the people who had to pick me up when I fell. I had a stain on my vest from the Pedialite that I drank to cover up my consequences.
I realize this is a rather dramatic metaphore. It’s JUST a vest. However, God really spoke to me this morning in this place and I think this metaphore is so much bigger than a silly vest.
I hope this speaks to you. I know it spoke to me. In the end, I have a vest that’s as good as new. God says, “I will make all things new.” If we submit ourselves and our pride to him and choose to get on our knees before Him with ALL our “stains”, he will wash us clean. He already has. We just have to be humble enough to accept it.
