Laboring on Labor Day

So this morning, I was making tea, filling up buckets of ice and taking care of other equally glorious tasks in the true spirit of Labor Day when I noticed a fellow laborer making an off-color joke. When he saw the disinterested look on my face, he responded with what I have come to see as almost an instinctive reaction when a guy realizes he has just said something "out-of-line" to an aspiring preacher.

Now I don't know that I should advertise this, but there is rarely a joke that is so off-color as to offend me. The look of disapproval my friend must have picked up was only a disapproval of the joke itself, which lacked delivery, timing, and substance (which ingredients I normally find to be crucial to a good joke), misinterpreted as a look of disgust at the topic of conversation.

After his obligatory apology, I felt it necessary to explain myself.

Me: If you think that joke offended me, then you clearly do not know either me or my friends.

I could tell on his face that he did not believe my claim to depravity, so I told him about a dear friend who has spent time in a federal prison. I explained to him that this man is one of my closest friends, advisors, and a man I respect in ways that I cannot begin to write down.

I find it very sad that this may have been the first time a 'pastor-type' has confessed openly his depravity directly to him. Jesus came to save those who need a doctor. I need a Doctor just as much as my friend or your friend- or you are in need of healing.

The Apostle Paul was the type of guy who led off with his brokenness and incapacity to impress. Not only did he call himself the 'chief sinner', but he also called himself 'weak, foolish, ill-bred, and even 'nothing'. If you don't believe me, re-read his letters.

Paul knew that the grace of Christ is really only shown in his power working through the people and things that have no greatness or attractiveness within themselves. Even Jesus was predicted as the one in whom there was nothing earthly to commend himself to people and how often do we present ourselves in the best possible light to mask our inadequacies before God and our neighbors? I don't know about you, but I do it a lot.

I am praying that God will continue to decrease my reputation so that others will see another glimmer of him and fall deeper and deeper into his mysterious love.