Getting Dirty

Dirty can be good! When our kids came in from outside and were very dirty, even though the dirt might get on the floor, I didn’t mind. I knew they had been playing hard outside! Growing up I remember my dad coming home from work with dirt and red dust on his eyebrows. When he was building roads, he would be dusty from head to toe. Dirty. But I knew from looking at him, he had finished a “GOOD day’s” work. Even if things had been tough, the dirt proved a “good,” even “hard,” day’s work.

I recently caddied for Thomas in a qualifier. It was 90 degrees full sun…not much breeze…carrying a 50 pound golf bag…walking up and down hills for four and a half hours…then driving the hour home. I was exhausted. I was really dirty, sticky and smelly but I had done a “good” day’s work and the “dirt” proved it. :o)

There is a good “dirty” that we can all avoid but should not! The good dirty is choosing to walk beside, get involved, in the “dirty” of someones else’s life. First, let me just establish a fact here. Everyone has DIRT. They do. Now some have dirt just on their “feet” and some are “covered”. Some have a “dusting” and some have “dried, caked on mud”.

Regardless, many times we don’t want to get in the ditch and get dirty with someone to “help” them out of their “life ditch.” We can even see people sinking in “quicksand” and for multiple reasons we don’t extend a hand. Why? Most of the time…we don’t want to get “dirty!” We could be fearful of what it might require of us–money, time, sacrifice or all three. We might feel inadequate or, scary but true, we might just not care! Sometimes, no, often times we wonder what others will think. People pleasing. For multiple reasons….we CHOOSE TO NOT GET DIRTY.

Mark 2:3-5, “Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’”

What if the four men had chosen not to get dirty? Jesus saw their faith and so did all the others who watched the event unfold. I do not think it is biblical to not help someone who has gotten dirty! Now before you object, let me preface this by saying….there is a way to get “biblically dirty”. Always, the first thing we must do when we see dirt in other peoples lives is pray. Doesn’t matter if they have fallen into a “dirty pit” or mis-stepped into a “mud hole” or maybe accidentally took a wrong turn and found themselves in “quicksand”…we can pray!

Yep, the first response is to pray for them. The second, and one we are all RESPONSIBLE FOR, IS TO GO TO GOD and ask…”DO YOU WANT ME TO GET DIRTY WITH THEM?” Meaning…walk beside them, extend a hand, a listening ear…in which you risk getting “dirty” by helping. A lack of obedience, faith, pride, or self-reliance can keep us from at least asking God…the big…scary question…”Do you want me to get dirty?”

I love the story of Jonathan and David in the Bible. Praise God when Saul, Jonathan’s dad, was seeking to kill David who was dirty from the running and the hiding, Johnathan chose to get dirty!!! I Samuel 19:2-3, ” So Jonathan told David, saying, ‘My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore please be on your guard until morning, and stay in a secret place and hide. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you. Then what I observe, I will tell you.’”

This post is intended to encourage you to examine if are you willing to ask God if you need to get beside a “dirty” person and risk getting dirty yourself…for their Greater Good…and God’s GREATER GLORY!

I am thankful for the people God has placed in my life that chose to get “dirty” when they saw me “dirty” in order for me…to get the dirt off! It has so motivated, taught, and encouraged me to take the “risk” to get dirty with others in order to experience God’s glory and how much He can be a “MR. CLEAN,” a “CLOROX CLEAN” in anyone’s life. Do you realize He has called us all to be the “paper towels” that go along with the “CLOROX CLEAN UP?” That may mean it could “bleach us” in a few areas that need bleaching.

I encourage you today…Risk getting Dirty. You just may see more of God’s Glory! Jesus was the best example of this. Do what Jesus would do.

Matthew 25:35-36, ” ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’”

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