Pay Attention!

I had an appointment with the man last month at his house here in town. When I walked into his house, the first thought that ran through my mind was where to put my computer bag down. There was mold running up the corners of all his walls and going into the ceiling. The smell was dried sweat mixed with a whole bunch of things- of which I don't even want to know what they were. The man himself had patchy greasy hair and as you look down the rest of his body, you can tell that it has been a long while since he has taken a shower...probably part of where the smell came from. He was wearing socks that were warn to the point he might as well had not been wearing any at all, and did I mention that he conveniently forgot to wear pants to our meeting. He was just wearing a t-shirt, which he felt in his mind served the purpose he was going for. If he dressed up for our meeting, I fear what he would look like if he had not remembered about our appointment that day. He was wearing a robe over his t-shirt, but it was open and served no real purpose in covering anything at all. When it came time to set down for the appointment to go over the presentation, I found the best spot around me where I saw the least amount of funk on the floor. As I was setting in the chair the man provided me, I was seriously wondering what in the world I was setting in at the moment...and if there might be any shots that could prevent me from catching whatever it was setting in that chair. I feared by the end of the appointment that the man might want to shake my hand, and by what I saw on his hands and underneath his fingernails, I didn't want to risk it- so I had plans to make sure and have something in both hands so that if need be I can maybe bow at him or something other than shaking his hand. When I was meeting with the guy- having all these thoughts- God reached out and spoke to me in a way I didn't expect Him to. He used simple words with me- "Would you wear this man's clothes if I asked you to?" Then He went further asking me, "Would you wear something as personal as this man's underwear if I asked you to?" EWWWW, was my response, but the point was very clear in my mind. Sometimes, you can forget just what Christ did for you on the cross and you need a good reminder. I saw myself as clean and this man was very unclean. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to choose to put this man's clothes on myself...but that is exactly what Christ did for us when He was clean and we were dirty. He put on the most personal of sins and wore them on the cross for us...and He didn't complain...He did it because He loved us and wanted us to be clean. He associated Himself with unclean so that we could be associated with clean! If you pay attention out there, God just might have a lesson for you!