This isn't meant to be gross or inappropriate, but the day that I switched from briefs to boxers was a great day in my life. It was like one of those rites of passage from childhood into manhood. The boxers vs. briefs debate will probably always be waged and eventually you're gonna have to make a decision which side you are on. I'm not sure that I can adequately explain why it is so glorious, but if you are a man you probably understand.
Another great day is when your children graduate from diapers and pull-ups to underwear. That is usually a bit of a tougher transition with lots of bumps in the road along the way, yet not having to grab that pack of Huggies or Pampers at the store every week is just as freeing. Sure, family trips take a bit longer but I'd rather pull into a rest stop for a bathroom break than to have to smell a dirty diaper for 50 miles.
Is there some sort of connection that we can make with underwear and our relationship with God? How many eyebrows would raise if I were to speak the above illustrations from a church pulpit this Sunday? Yet underwear is exactly the metaphor that God Himself used in the book of Jeremiah to describe how our relationship to Him is to be.
Let me set the stage first. Jeremiah was instructed by God to buy some linen underwear, wear it for a while, and then take it to the Euphrates River and bury it in the rocky crevices (Jeremiah 13:1-11). Some time later, God then instructed Jeremiah to go and dig up the clean underwear he had buried. When Jeremiah did so, he found that the underwear was ruined and "of no use whatsoever." Nasty underwear is a bummer!
What was God's lesson for us in all of this? He told Jeremiah that people "who refuse to listen to Me, who walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship--they will be like this underwear, of no use whatsoever." I don't know about you, but the image of nasty underwear gets my attention and I have no desire to be compared to it!
Then God made another underwear declaration for all of us to follow: "Just as underwear clings to one's waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and Judah to Me so that they might be My people for My fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey." It's hard to deny that underwear can be a bit clingy at times. Do we cling to God in such a way that brings Him fame, praise, and glory? Again, making the connection from underwear to God may seem like a bit of a stretch, but none of us who are followers of Christ can deny that our highest goal must be to bring Him fame, praise, and glory. We can do none of these unless we cling to Him.
In the end, boxers or briefs becomes moot point. What truly matters is that we cling to God with all that we have and obey Him with every fiber of discipline in our bodies so that we might be pure and undefiled as we lift His name to the glorious level that it is due.
Another great day is when your children graduate from diapers and pull-ups to underwear. That is usually a bit of a tougher transition with lots of bumps in the road along the way, yet not having to grab that pack of Huggies or Pampers at the store every week is just as freeing. Sure, family trips take a bit longer but I'd rather pull into a rest stop for a bathroom break than to have to smell a dirty diaper for 50 miles.
Is there some sort of connection that we can make with underwear and our relationship with God? How many eyebrows would raise if I were to speak the above illustrations from a church pulpit this Sunday? Yet underwear is exactly the metaphor that God Himself used in the book of Jeremiah to describe how our relationship to Him is to be.
Let me set the stage first. Jeremiah was instructed by God to buy some linen underwear, wear it for a while, and then take it to the Euphrates River and bury it in the rocky crevices (Jeremiah 13:1-11). Some time later, God then instructed Jeremiah to go and dig up the clean underwear he had buried. When Jeremiah did so, he found that the underwear was ruined and "of no use whatsoever." Nasty underwear is a bummer!
What was God's lesson for us in all of this? He told Jeremiah that people "who refuse to listen to Me, who walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship--they will be like this underwear, of no use whatsoever." I don't know about you, but the image of nasty underwear gets my attention and I have no desire to be compared to it!
Then God made another underwear declaration for all of us to follow: "Just as underwear clings to one's waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and Judah to Me so that they might be My people for My fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey." It's hard to deny that underwear can be a bit clingy at times. Do we cling to God in such a way that brings Him fame, praise, and glory? Again, making the connection from underwear to God may seem like a bit of a stretch, but none of us who are followers of Christ can deny that our highest goal must be to bring Him fame, praise, and glory. We can do none of these unless we cling to Him.
In the end, boxers or briefs becomes moot point. What truly matters is that we cling to God with all that we have and obey Him with every fiber of discipline in our bodies so that we might be pure and undefiled as we lift His name to the glorious level that it is due.
No comments:
Post a Comment