Salvation is a messy business. Forget about the tidy boxes Of rules and rituals. To follow Christ doesn’t mean Strapping a Bible to our back And pondering the universe From the comfort Of a cushioned pew. It is not three points and a poem Where we pray, walk the aisle And get dunked, sprinkled and registered. We won’t find Salvation Listening to droning Exclamatory expositions Of proper, passive, practical performance, Or compliant, conspicuous, conforming comportment. No, it means that our eyes Are finally opened. Our vision clears Revealing the reality That we live in the sewage Of our own creation. Nothing is more difficult Than placing our own souls Under the unfiltered lens of a microscope Seeing the waste for what it is And know that we are the cause. We are the gardeners of the carnage. What we once found to be The fragrant fanciful fog of incense Created by our thirst for power And our love of self, Our castles and fortunes Built on the backs Of the less fortunate, Now becomes the stench Of sulfur and rotten eggs As we become aware That all that we valued Was never valuable in the least. Salvation is allowing God To rip open our hearts Exposing the cesspool That we have engineered In our constant search For self-worth, And by doing so, Releasing the vile stench Into the air So that Christ Jesus can wash The filth away, Remove the rot and ruin, With His very own blood. He simply can’t make us clean If we refuse to see the Mud and grime, The garbage we have allowed To invade and fill The space in our soul Reserved as a dwelling For the Holy Spirit, A temple made by and for the abiding of… God. God in us. God in a relationship with us. God dwelling in us. The cross was not simple. The cross was not a joy ride. The cross was not spectacle. The cross was never meant To be viewed from a distance. It is a dark, filthy, painful, deep cleaning, In your face, up close and personal, Scrub our hearts with steel wool. It is an Invasion of our soul, Where Christ climbs into the sewer with us And rips open our heart To do the dirty work That only He can do. He wades into the wickedness that is us, A place unfit for any king, Much less the savior of humankind, To clean us out and set us free. To expose our filth For what it is And show us How we are meant to be… How we can be… How we should be… The Children of God. I kid you not, Salvation is messy business, A process that should Never to be sanitized Nor devalued, Never to get lost In the hoopla of religion, Sanctimonious proclamations, Or the vacuum of pretense. Its no walk in the park, No bed of roses, No day at the mall. It is a raw, ugly, gruesome, Extremely difficult, Turning of the soil, Casting of the fertilizer Act of completely, committed contrition, Where the breath of God Breathes into our vile souls And starts cleaning house. The result of that process Is something amazing, Beautiful, extraordinary, emotional, Uplifting, walking on clouds, And way beyond deep… We become a temple Where God is welcome, His presence treasured. We become a vessel to be used, A vessel that can make a difference in others. There is nothing in the nature Of humankind on this planet That compares to a soul Washed and cleansed by God, Where the stench is replaced By the fragrance of incense, The darkness replaced With abundant radiance The filth replaced With values instilled By our heavenly father, Where our self-love, self-indulgence, and self-gratification Is replaced with a desire To serve our God By serving the souls around us. Yes, salvation is a messy business. What an amazing gift from God! Rev Walt |