As you know or can presume from the style and classiness of these posts, I have excellent taste.
Ahem.
And I hesitate to point out, most reluctantly, that in this post, the exact BRANDS and style of clothing I was wearing were noted for interested readers! (I mention that cautiously and with true humility, of course.) In this post, I describe the fancy hat collection I am developing for use in my old age.
So yes!
I CAN EASILY advise on how to look good!
So, HOW do we look VERY GOOD at church, you ask? Great question! I’m SO glad you asked! Ahem!
First, set aside your pride and go ahead and have a big ‘ol ugly cry at church. Seriously! I describe my own (rare) undignified moment here.
You’re welcome.
But wait, wait, you ask, “How does ugly crying make us look good?” It seems the opposite would be true! You hang on my every word, waiting to discover how to lock and seal this seemingly disparent advice into a philosophically coherent indisputable argument.
I’ll explain.
The more we air our neuroses (sorry for the analogy, but it’s like flatulence), the less we smell bad! Seriously! Now, you know that I never even like to MENTION the word flatulence, as described here. However, the analogy fits SO perfectly.
When we hold in, er- what SHOULD be aired – the inside of us smells terrible, though the outside has no odour. Okay, this analogy MAY be breaking down a bit, but you get my point, I think? If we HOLD IN our neuroses, and pretend everything is okay when it isn’t, the inner neuroses pick away at us, and the rotten stench that all of us carry around with us festers there, though often we are the only ones who can smell it.
(If you think you always smell good, have you ever wondered – “AH! What IS the meaning of my life?” – JUST before you fall asleep? If so, that’s a case in point. You are more messed up than you let on, too!)
So, let out the uglies! A little cry at church is just the thing. You’ll find that people who love you bring you a Kleenex and a pat on the shoulder.
They may not be able to help you much, but they genuinely want to, which counts for something.
You see, at church, God COMMANDS others to love you. Now, granted, NONE of us are that good at loving others, but some have figured out how to channel a morsel of God’s love for us through their arms into compassion.
These are the people we can be honest with, and -no surprises here – they have already taken their turn in the ugly seat.
They are not surprised by your big cry!
And somehow, expressing what we feel is enough to keep the evil dragon at bay for a while.
Knowing that someone is praying for us helps too.
Add a little time with the Father to ask Him a bit more about WHY we were neurotic freaks at church last week and He gives us the Kleenex that is the softest kind that dries all of our tears because His Kleenex is fragranced with hope.
At church, they will read to you from a book, and it may say something like this:
And this will put a bounce in our step and hope in our hearts.
We’re not as neurotic as we thought!
Well, we are if we dig deeper, but that’s for next Sunday.
The point is, we’re not sucking in our guts anymore, pretending our way through life.
‘May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.’
Whatever we bring to the light can be healed.
Whatever we hide infects us, rotting away at our insides.
So let’s let our neuroses out!
And maybe after we’ve let out some of the uglies, we may shift the direction of the ship we are sailing a little closer to true north.
And as we go about our week, we’ll find we are starting to smell better!
We’ll look better, too, through God’s eyes.
Restoring Life 