Are You Willing to Get Dirty?

The photo to the left is symbolic of my destination this week.

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Just looking at it makes my nose turn up. I can almost feel the cold squishy mud between my toes, smell the sour stench of the pigs, feel my stomach tighten at the thought of plunging in with them.

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But that's exactly what I'm about to do.

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Following God's call on your life usually requires getting dirty. His paths rarely lead only through pristine meadows and sparkling castles. The path Jesus took when he became flesh required him to get down in the mud with us, smell our stench, feel our cold revulsion.

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And His call on our lives requires that we be willing to do the same for those He brings across our paths.

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"Do you love Me?" Jesus asked Peter three times.

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When Peter replied that of course he loved the Lord, Jesus' only answer was, "Then feed my sheep."

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But sometimes those sheep act like pigs. They smell like pigs, live like pigs, and have allowed the foul stench of evil to permeate their lives. Feeding them requires that we enter the pigpen, get down in the mud with them, and pull them out.

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As a counselor, I have to hear the yukky details of sin-smeared hearts, ask questions I don't want answers to, listen to details I'd rather ignore, and meditate about how to shine a light into a darkness so black it makes my skin crawl.

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A part of me recoils at the thought. I'd much rather frolic on the mountaintops, worshipping the beauty of the Lord, rejoicing in His wonders, delighting in what is good and pleasant. But true obedience requires that I follow Christ's example. That I "let this mind be in me, which was also in Christ Jesus..."

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His heart is down here in the mud with the sheep that think they are pigs. And that's where He's sending me.

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Feeding some of his sheep is the least I can do after all He's done for me. If He was willing to come after me, who am I to turn up my nose when He asks me to dive in and rescue someone else.

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Okay, smelly sheep. I'm coming for ya.

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