Grace-Stick…or Grace-Wash?

As a young college student a few years back, among other things “looking good” was a priority for me. It was my chance to win the ladies and I took great pride in my appearance (definitely sinful, prideful mindset…but that’s another blog ;). One of the ways I took great care in my appearance was how I dressed and what my clothes looked like. I never have the nicest clothes (poor college student) and I never had the most trendy clothes (I can’t justify spending over $25 for ANY item of clothing), but whatever clothes I had on I made sure were CLEAN! If they had a stain…even the smallest of stains…they would not be worn. Then, I found the most amazing creation ever: the wonderful Tide-Stick!!! What an amazing thing!!! It saved me LOADS of laundry as I simply applied the tide stick to my mini-stained clothing and it looked LEGIT!!!

Let’s be real, the Tide-Stick is pretty awesome. It gets out just about every stain. Yet, after doing some research from the Tide website, I found that we treat the TideStick just like we treat sin. See, I was never concerned with stains on my clothes because I had a temporary fix. This temporary fix didn’t and couldn’t replace the effect of actually WASHING my clothes. My clothes looked good, but there were still stains…just covered up by the TideStick.

Check out what I mean…The Tide questions and answers are directly from their website (bold and italics are added by me for emphasis).

Does Tide to Go work on all stains?

No. Tide to Go is designed specifically for removing fresh food and drink stains. Tide to Go does not perform as well on non-food and drink stains including ink, grease, blood, and grass stains.

Are there any stains that Tide to Go cannot remove?

Tide to Go does not perform as well on non-food and drink stains including ink, grease, blood, and grass stains. These are the types of stains that will need to be pretreated and laundered.

Why is Tide to Go only for fresh food and drink stains?

Tide to Go was designed specifically for food and drink stains because our consumer research indicated that fresh food and drink stains accounted for 72% of stains that occur on the go. We are meeting a very specific consumer need with Tide to Go.

Some readers are disappointed with performance — they say that stains weren't eliminated at all — just ameliorated.

When Tide to Go is used according to package direction on non-greasy fresh food and drink stains we are confident that it will deliver results that will make consumers very happy. However, no product can promise to remove every stain under every condition…

Does this sound like what we as Christians do with our sin? Replace the TideStick with whatever you use as your excuse for “fixing” or “hiding” your sin. Do we use joking to cover your sin? Do we just say “I’m sorry” and move on? Do we make excuses for WHY you sinned? Do we categorize sin as “not so bad” just because it’s little? Do we hide the little sins like complaining, selfishness, little lies, gossip, etc. from people so they won’t know? I do all this ALL THE TIME! What am I doing? I am simply using a TideStick to cover my “stains.” You know what that does in my life? It creates a temporary fix to a permanent problem. I never get to the root of my sin. I never deal with it. I look good, but inwardly I am whacked. And here is what it ultimately says: “I can take care of my sin…my rebellion against Christ…I don’t need Christ to take care of my sin. I got it.”

In college the TideStick was amazing…it worked…for a time…yet, why didn’t I just throw my stained shirts, pants, or hats into the wash? Hello!!! It not only would take away my blatantly obvious stains, but even the ones I couldn’t see…you see where I’m getting at?

God’s grace is sufficient enough for every sin. We try so hard to use our own methods of covering sin when Christ’s work on the cross already paid for that. You know how irritating it was putting TideStick over EVERY stain…it was much easier just throwing the shirt in the wash and having the complete and total satisfaction of knowing it would come out CLEAN! Christ’s work on the cross did that for us. Yet, our flesh LOVES to try and think that we don’t need God’s grace for “little” sins…or that God’s grace covers EVERY sin. The flesh weakens conviction against sin by separating the REMEDY of grace from the DESIGN of grace. God's clear design in showing grace is to make us holy - Titus 2:11-12 (completely clean). His loving grace gives us peace, so that we know that when we do sin (get stains on our shirt), "we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense" (1 John 2:1).

What are you doing with your dirty shirts? Using the TideStick of your own efforts…or trusting in the wonderful grace of our Lord to wash us completely clean…no matter what!

Forever Young Aliens

I’m 2*-years old…in an 11 year-old’s opinion I’m old…to those “over the hill” I’m just a youngin’. To be honest, I feel super young. Sure, when I play in my pick-up basketball games at the gym and take some hard falls I don’t bounce back quite so quickly…but nothing fazes me. I’m a kid at heart…if any of you know me you know that I crack jokes (even during extremely serious convos), think the weirdest things are funny, and notice things like a 4 year-old. I have the attention span of an 8 year old at Toy’s R Us. I can’t sit still. I get excited easily and let people know it! This is a part of who I am and I love it. I have a kid-like view on life…nothing is too important not to have fun!

I hope that I continue to have this same perspective and personality well into my 60’s (if the Lord would allow me to live that long). I would love to be like my dad, who at 50, teaches little kids P.E., goofs around with everyone he knows, and has the most energy of a 50 year-old I’ve ever seen. I think he enjoys the life God has given him more than anyone I know. That is what I aspire to.

So you may ask, “Ryan, what in the world inspired you to write about youthful personality?” Well, the lovely radio did it! Specifically the new remix “Forever Young” by Jay-Z. Man, he has a way of remixing songs with incredible skill (although the content is rarely appropriate). As I found myself singing the words, I was struck by the words of another song I was listening to, “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot (maybe one of my top 10 bands ever). Let me list a few lines from both songs:

Forever Young

Heaven can wait, we’re only watching the skies

Let us die young or let us live forever

Fear not when, fear not why, fear not much while we’re alive

Life is for living, not living up tight, see ya somewhere up in the sky

Fear not die, I’ll be alive for a million years, bye bye

So not for legends, I’m forever young, my name shall survive

Meant to Live

Fumbling his confidence and wondering why the world has passed him by

Hoping that he's bent for more than arguments

And failed attempts to fly, fly

We want more than the wars of our fathers

And everything inside screams for second life, yeah

We were meant to live for so much more

Ok, so this isn’t a battle of the bands…or songs. But the drastic difference has sparked something in my heart. The Bible is clear that we are aliens in this world (1 Peter 1:1-3). We have been called as Christians to focus our passions to seeking our HOME (heaven).

Matthew 6:30-36, Jesus shows that the worries of this life should be thrown to the side…why? Two reasons: 1) there will always be worries in this life…2) we are called to seek our home (heaven) FIRST! It makes sense. Why worry about the trials of the day when we won’t be staying here long (in comparison to eternity).

So what does all this have to do with being young? The song Forever Young? What’s the point Ryan?

Well, from what I see in the song Forever Young is the attitude that this life is all we have…so let’s live it up! Don’t let the worries of life stress you out..stay young…live life loud…and live like you have no fear. Why? Cause there’s nothing left after we’re dead! This is all we have.

From what I see in the Bible is the attitude is this life is a gift, temporary living space, and can end at any moment (“You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” James 4:14). So let’s live it up for Christ! Don’t let the worries of life stress you out…stay spiritually passionate…live life loud for God…and live life like you have no fear because nothing in this world can affect our standing before Christ as justified!

We were meant to live for so much more…we were meant to live in fellowship with God…what an amazing day it will be when we are with Him in heaven…truly forever young!