i am the shoe, and God is me?

I live in a city. People here love owning dogs, myself included. We also have small yards in which they do their bidding business. It's not like they can just run around on the farm and find a spot in the yonder wood. This afternoon I came home to let the dog out and ran up the back steps to find a ball. It has rained a good bit this week and is sort of warm and damp on the ground. The exact melting point of, you know, doo doo. I never looked down until it was too late. Eeeeeeeeccckkk!

So, why the post? As I was wiping the bottom of my shoe, which happened to be a Dansko with tons and tons of tiny little cracks and deep crevices, it just seemed to get worse! 6 Clorox wipes later, no change, just a really foul smell. I was wondering if this is somewhat of the way the remnants of my sinful nature seem to God?  Ever so slowly, with what seems like little progress along the way and plenty of nastiness that comes with it, he is working to remove sin and ungodly desires from my life, to change the thoughts and motives of my heart and working to make me more like himself. This morning I was reading a chapter in an amazing book by Paul Tripp & Tim Lane called, "How People Change". The truth that we generally minimize our own sinfulness and maximize everyone else's has a sting to it. My knee jerk response of, "not true", proves the point even more. "Self-righteousness is our own personal defense attorney. We wrap our robes of self-righteousness around us and rise to our own defense." Only when I accept and believe and see my true smelling state, does the gospel become good news for me. The grace, reconciliation, mercy, power, restoration, forgiveness, patience and hope of the gospel are for me.


The culprit