No Sense in Dressin' Up Fancy if You Ain't Taken a Bath......

I went to a Sadie Hawkins day dance in high school many years ago. For
those of you not familiar with that dance, it is where the girls get to ask
the boys out on a date. Of course now I would imagine that kind of dance is
truly obsolete because I don't think girls wait to be asked out on a date
any more. However, while at this dance, I was asked to dance by another
young man. I was shocked as he began to dance with me. It was a slow dance
and I thought that I was going to be sick. He stunk. Not just a little
body odor from forgetting to use deodorant, but reeked from not bathing
apparently for a very long time. Now a Sadie Hawkins dance is also a fancy
dress party where everyone dresses in costumes of the stereotype
"Hillbillies of yore". Legend has it that these folks were real earthy and
simple and were not know for good personal hygiene. So at the end of the
dance I told this young man that he was supposed to dress the part, not
smell the part. Of course now I would not be so callus, but unclean is
unclean.

When I was first saved I was on fire for God. The Pastor told me that even
though I had been baptized as an infant (my family was Catholic) I was to be
baptized again. This time I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior with a
free will and by making an adult decision. I too had to make the decision
to be water baptized. The purpose of water baptism is symbolic. You go
under the water the old person that you were prior to giving yourself to
Jesus, and come up out of the water as a new person in Him. So I was
baptized. But I missed the last part of what my Pastor told me. I failed
to come up out of the water a new person. Although God is still in the
miracle business, He gives us free will and we must put all He has for us
into practice on our own. A new person is just that, a new person. When
you accept Jesus Christ, you are to strive to become like him. That is why
you must read the Word daily and put what you read into action. It is your
guide to becoming more like Him.

I left church that Sunday after my baptism and did nothing to change my
life. The following weekend it was business as usual. I made plans with my
girlfriends to hit the bars and have a good time. My language did not
change. I still could and occasionally would swear like a Marine. (Nothing
against our Marines!) I took pride in being able to drink anyone under the
table. At work I was a hard and unyielding boss and had very little
compassion for others. I never saw two sides to any story. It was my way
or the high way so to speak. Shame, shame, shame on me.

A time later I moved and became friends with a woman that lived near me.
She had a couple of grown kids and they were a close family. She was a
little concerned about her daughter's new fiancé. They were a Catholic
family and their faith was very much a part of their lives. The young man
was not raised in a church environment. I said that I would talk to the
young man for her. I was only a couple of years into my walk with Jesus
which only consisted of making it to church on Sundays. I was proud because
even a bad hangover did not deter me from making it to church. Wow. Wasn't
I something! In fact on two occasions I actually ran into my girlfriends
kids at a club when I was really into drinking and having my normal good
time.

A couple of weeks later, we all were on our way to visit a Six Flags
together. My girlfriend gently but cleverly turned the conversation to
Christianity and the Bible. The young man began to rant. He stated that
all he could see in the bible was stories of murder, incest, adultery,
violence. I told him that man would either remain in the state described by
those stories or make the decision to turn toward Christ. The stories were
object lessons more or less to teach us the error of our ways by giving us
something to relate to. He laughed at me and said, "Oh sure, like the way I
can relate to you being a Christian. You talk a good game, but I have seen
you in the bars and you are far from what you preach. God must love you
representing Him. Yeah, after meeting you, I am going to run right out and
get saved. If you are saved honey, I already am too!" I was stunned into
absolute silence. The shame that came over me was overwhelming. This is
how I was perceived as a representative of the Kingdom of God which I was
calling my new home. I knew then that I was filthy and dressed in rags
before Christ. My own spiritual stench reached up into my own nose. It was
overpowering and vile. That day turned into the longest and most miserable
day of my life. At the end of that long day, in which the young man taunted
me constantly by referring to me as "Christian Lady", all I could do was
thank him for his profound insight. He was a little stunned by that. I
realized that I had not come up out of the water as a new person in Christ,
but I came out reeking of the world that I was supposed to have left behind.
I prayed to God for the strength to truly change. Psalm 51:10 says, "Create
in me a clean heart of God, and renew a right spirit within me." (KJV) That
was my prayer....and it was answered.

Matthew 15:8 states, "Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you saying,
'These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.'" That was me in a nutshell. If this is
where you are, arise and become a new man in the Lord. Please come to the
realization that there is no sense in dressin' up fancy if you ain't taken a
bath....Patti