"Brush
It Off, Jesus!"
"For
freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not
entangled again in a yoke of bondage." – Galatians
5:1
"Brush it off, Jesus!" my little girl,
Olivia, exclaimed from the backseat of the car. She was tagging along
with ‘yours truly' as I was truly playing tag with my erratic
emotions. Why? What's the big deal? "You've spoken in front of
many, many people in the past, for crying out loud," I mused to
myself. My musings surely weren't amusing me on this evening as I was
on the verge of literally crying out loud. I couldn't find rest
anywhere to include the laurels of my past. My past is what was
depriving me of peace in, at that time, my present. Ever been where I
was and likely will be again?
"God is our refuge and
strength, A very present help in trouble." -Psalms 46:1
My
fears mounting, my palms sweating, my thoughts dividing, my heart
racing, my little girl kept speaking. "Brush it off, Jesus!"
The lilt and levity in her little voice was comforting, but I wasn't
getting it – the comfort that is. All I could hear was a
toddler touting what her mother had been bolstering at the park each
day. Olivia loves the park and she has the memory of her mother when
her dad has done bad! From Boise, Idaho to Bangor, Maine, moms of
strong-willed and thin-skinned toddlers everywhere say it, "Get
up sweetheart! You're okay! Just brush it off, and GO ON!"
I
was getting ready to tell my church my life story. If only I could
stop my testimony just prior to my post-teen years! That's it! I'll
just dance around the uncomfortable stuff; it's all fluff anyway and
it might cause some folks to think poorly of me. After all, people
come to church to feel good, right? No. I couldn't use that one for I
knew too many in my church and their faith. There would be too many
with strong faith for me to wimp out with a weak testimony. And
there would also be too many with weak faith that would benefit from
a strong and authentic testimony.
For the third time and it
was the charm, she would say it for the last time. "Brush it
off, Jesus!" But for some reason I got it this time – the
"Jesus" part of her repeated sagacity. Perhaps Olivia was
waiting upon the Lord for dull-witted dad to clue in. I was getting
impatient. Her timing was uncanny and to think God would use a wee
little one to remind me that He was the One I need only be concerned
about.
"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." –Mark
10:15
"Thank you honey," I calmly remarked. My
palms stopped sweating at about the same time that my heart stopped
racing. I remembered Psalm 119:105 which reads: "Your Word is a
lamp to my feet and a light for my path." I was starting to get
the comfort now and right in the nick of time! In less than an hour,
I'd be standing behind a podium discussing my past.
"The
church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it
grew in strength and numbers. The believers were walking in the fear
of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit." –Acts
9:31
Jesus brought peace and comfort to the church
throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria . . .and He left the whole
world with the Holy Spirit for the sole purpose of providing
believers peace and power. I needed it that night in our church in
Lexington, Kentucky and my daughter knew it. She sensed it somehow.
It's not supposed to work this way, or so I thought. I should be
encouraging her, not the other way around. But who am I to tell God
who to use for His plan? My little girl is but a toddler, but we'd
both be fools to think God didn't fit her with His Spirit.
"And
it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the
truth." -1 John 5:7
I don't plan on picking up beer
bottles or booze again anytime soon. It stole too many days. It
wasted years of usefulness. Time is one thing that can't be
resurrected. Can you relate, in anyway or in any fashion? We all
have, or had strongholds. You might be wrestling with one right now.
Assortments of addictions: greed, jealously, gossip, anger,
bitterness, pornography, or a mouth that would cause the best of
sailors to jump ship. There are many more but that's another chapter,
perhaps another book!
"Being filled with all
unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness;
they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful."
–Romans 1:29-31
I've never been much of a gambler,
but I will bet you that you have a testimony to tell to at least
someone. Someone wants to know. God already does. It would make you
feel better just to get whatever it is out in the open if you haven't
already, don't you think? What others don't know won't hurt
them? That's true I suppose. But it's going to eat you alive (not all
of you, just some of you and that's enough). Imagine your head
precariously perched on a pair of pumps, sandals, or whatever shoes
you generally wear. Pretty absurd sight isn't it? Perhaps the thought
that we've actually pulled the wool over others' eyes is even more
absurd.
"And there is no creature hidden from His
sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom
we must give account." –Hebrews 4:13
Sadness,
sorrow, tears, pain. May I encourage you to share your past tears to
possibly prevent another soul from having to shed unnecessary ones?
If we've learned from losing it wasn't a loss, right? We can't
waste what has wasted us so we might as well use it to help someone.
Oh, you might think in this vast world that you are just another
someone, but to another someone you might just be their world. In the
Old Testament, a guy named Job didn't have Jesus yet, just three
superior cynics!
"Now when Job's three friends heard
of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from
his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite
and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment
together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him." –Job
2:11
Job would find out that his three friends were rather
fair weathered at best and mean-spirited at worst. They couldn't help
him with answers as to his horrible misfortune, but he did have a
nagging question.
"Of a truth I know that it is so:
But how can man be just with God?" –Job 9:2
Look
at Job's question again. "Of a truth I know that it is so: But
how can man be just with God?" Unlike Job then, we have Jesus
Christ now! Whatever your past holds doesn't give it right of way
before our forgiving God to hold you down. Listen. Be very still.
Pause to think and you'll have cause to thank. Listen again. Do you
hear Him? Whatever your dirty deeds, He died for them. Did you hear
Him? "Brush it off, Mike, Bill, Karen, Mary, Joe, Jill, Missy,
Leisha, Greg, Larry….______! Whatever your name, He is asking
you to brush it off – your past that is. "Brush it off,"
He's saying it again. "For I know the plans I have for you…to
give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11) If you haven't
already, will you just go ahead and take Jesus at His Word?
"If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." -1 John 1:9
I
surely wish I could have stopped my drunken foolishness long before I
did. I didn't though. Allow me to go back to something. About this
time thing that we're all painfully guilty of frittering away, it's
really okay! I think I mentioned that time can't be resurrected, but
the Good News or Gospel is that you can be. Now, it's your turn to
ask Him if you haven't already. Just ask Him. "Brush it off,
Jesus!" Indeed, a new creature in Christ.
"Therefore
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed
away; behold, new things have come." -2 Corinthian 5:17
Did
you ask Him? I think you just might have. Ask Him again. "Brush
it off, Jesus!" I heard Him reply. "I just did my child.
Get up and GO ON!"
Author:
B.G. Jett © -2003 From, "What Leads Us To The
Ledge?"
