How are you dressed?

How are you dressed for the work of God?

I have been thinking about this question as I begin my Advent readings.  I am again reading the book "Watch for the Light", a collection of readings for Advent and Christmas.  The author on this day asks "are you ready to roll your sleeves up and do some serious work while we wait?"

So how are you dressed?

The author, Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, says that slackers are the ones dressed in their Sunday best.  They are not prepared to roll up their sleeves and prepare for the coming of Christ.  Luke 12:35-48 says "Be ready for action, and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet...blessed is the slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives."  In this wonderful coming of Christ to save our sins, God has made us a part of the plan.  God needs faithful people like us to be ready for the coming of Christ, ready to roll up our sleeves and do the work that comes with that.  The work of waiting and the work of spreading the light!

What work exactly should we do?  Whatever work we are lead to do by the Holy Spirit that calls us to spread that light.  We need to be dressed and ready to walk hand in hand with God as he calls us into the dark places.  Those dark places in both our hearts and in this world.  Walking with God will "illuminate every corner where we have work to do" Blumhardt says.

So what does it look like to be dressed and ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work?  I would say it looks like someone who is not afraid to turn the pages in the bible and get to reading.  It would look like someone who is not afraid to get their knees dirty in prayer and is patient enough to walk with those dirty knees until they hear the voice that is speaking to them.  It is someone who is dressed with enough, but not so much that they can't see through their beautiful clothing.  It is someone who is not clutching their purse or wallet so tightly that they can't cultivate an attitude of giving.  It is someone who is dressed to be able to give the shirt off their back in service to God.

How am I dressed?  Not in the perfect outfit God has picked out for me, but we are working on it.  We are trying on these new items of clothing, the attitude of being his Beloved and getting my knees dirty in prayer.  The problem is every once in a while the world takes one look at you and you feel you must take those beautiful things God is working on off and put them aside.  Not everyone thinks they are as beautiful as God does.  Luckily there is grace and forgiveness and we have the chance to try again to dress as God would have us. Ready to roll up the sleeves on the outfit he gave us and walk into the darkest places to spread Christ's light.

Today I'm dressed in an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness.  Thankful for family, friends, grace, love, & forgiveness.  The blessings of life are just wonderful...