Not Just the Hair on My Chinny Chin Chin!

I awoke the other morning to discover that at the age of thirty one my face had exploded with great big mounds of red.  I have to admit I was quite dismayed to see the two, no three new pimples that had developed over my nights sleep.  How unfair it is that as an adult I have to endure a face full of acne, didn’t I already do this in high school?
    I immediately threw open the doors of the medicine cabinet and pulled out every cleanser I could find.  I scrubbed and popped and rinsed and moisturized and then took a closer look in the mirror to see if there was any improvement.
    “What?!”  A hair on my chin?!  Throwing my face even deeper into the mirror I discovered tiny fuzzy (some light, some dark) hairs growing out of my chin.  Could this day get any worse?  Out came the tweezers and pluck pluck pluck.  With many winces and accidental pinches of skin I took another look and my chin was now almost hairless...good enough, but oh my goodness look at those eyebrows!  Was I suppose to have one, or two?  More plucking and pulling and wincing and pinching.  A few eye watering minutes later and the eye brows were looking a little better, not of course to my  full satisfaction, but what could I do, I was running out of time.
    Now it was time to apply the make up in hopes it would cover up my now exasperated blemishes.  A half hour later my face was covered in a thick layer of foundation, my eyelids powdered with eye shadow, cheeks pink with blush, and lips glazed with lipstick I was ready to face the world...it only took an hour and a half...

    Does any of this sound familiar?  I’m confident my morning routine is not too different than many of yours; full of primping and prodding, perhaps trimming unsightly nose or ear hairs (fellas).    We live in a world consumed with outward appearance.  We are inundated with commercials telling us their cleansers and beauty products are the only ones to make us happy.  That these shampoos will give your limp worthless hair the life and body it needs.  There’s Rogaine to grow hair where you want it, and wax to remove it from where it shouldn’t be.  We even have a show dedicated to teach us What Not to Wear!  All to improve the way we look to each other. If we were only this driven to improve our inward appearance to God.
    As I walked out the door that morning it occurred to me that I had spent my entire morning analyzing the “flaws” on my face, but no time looking at the sin in my life.  I realized the days leading up to that morning were more of the same.  For some reason I had been ignoring areas in my life that needed deep cleansing, but why?  It’s not as though I was unaware these areas existed; some were as clear as the pimples on my face. 
    Not too long ago I went through what I call my frumpy phase.  During this phase of life I stopped putting effort into my physical appearance.  I simply didn’t care how I looked and spent a good amount of my time bumming around in sweats.  I was tired of working at looking good and didn’t see why I had to.  I remember saying to a friend, “Who do I have to impress anyway - I’m married - he’s stuck with me!”  See, my husband made a promise on our wedding day to love me for better or worse, in good hair days and bad and he truly does.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate when I dress up just for him. 
    Our relationship is similar with God.  We are his bride and as such have the promise of his unconditional love and forgiveness, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)  We can be secure in the hope of our salvation, knowing our transgressions are washed clean through the forgiveness of Jesus, but there is danger in this security.  The danger is as Christians we can grow comfortable in this promise, and by extension comfortable in our own sin. 
    Why should we bother trying to clean up our acts, we’re already forgiven aren’t we?  God’s promised His love to us...he’s stuck with us right?  “What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?...count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life.” (Romans 6:1-2, 11-13)
    Christ didn’t die on the cross so we could go bumming around in our sin.  He has so much more planned for us. Ephesians 2:9 tells us that “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God wants so much to transform our lives and make them rich and blessed.  I decided that day when I look in the mirror I want to see Him reflected back.
       “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” (Colossians 3:12-14)
        Can you imagine how wonderful the world could be if we all took a little more time to cleanse these areas in our hearts instead of our faces?  How might our day, and the attitudes of people around us change if we allowed God time to pluck the unsightly hairs of selfishness, and pride from our hearts instead of the hairs on our chins?  If we stopped being comfortable in our sin, and despised it instead.  Blemishes come and go and come again, but God promises to change our hearts forever.
     “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 1:6).  God is waiting, holding the mirror up to our hearts, will you take the time to look in, and allow him to cleanse and transform you?