“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught by men.'” Isaiah 29:13 & Matthew 15:8-9

“My God… what IS this?” I was alone at the church last night, setting up for tonight’s big ‘Family Feud’ Bible Trivia event at our weekly Bible Study. I had asked, and was instructed on, how to set up the chairs for the event. Moving them all back, I stared at Jesus’ bare floor and saw about a half dozen messy, dirty spots! Three of which were some weird kind of goo!

My very first step was to get the floor cleaner to wipe up the messes. But passing over the spots did nothing. They just seemed to stick their tongue out at me. So I got a rag and some special cleaner. Nothing! Finally, I took my thumbnail and scraped hard… and got it! But along with the gooey spot under my nail, I also got a very large slice of ‘indignant pie!’

Indignant is a fancy word not used a lot because I think it sounds something like ‘unhealthy anger.’ So I looked it up and found that ‘Indignant’ is ‘a feeling or showing of anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment.’ And yup! It was just the right word. But then ‘Just be nice,’ came to mind. Then standing alone in God’s house… an alarm went off.

The very first thing I felt was shame. Being a pastor is tough, since everybody has an opinion on how things should be. Right then I felt my own spotty shame because ‘joy’ had become a job! Instead of looking at God’s floor and being honored to care for it, I had shifted focus to my own inconvenience caused by other people’s dishonor. So I cleaned even more, with a smile!

I am the Pastor. That job comes with responsibility, AND judgment if I DON’T do it correctly. Like a father teaching his children how to grow into loving, honoring adults, my vocation is to do the same with God’s sheep. To teach people that, while drips, drops and spills may happen, it is NOT OK to leave a nasty mess for someone else to clean up. God watches!

God demands, and deserves, that I honor Him FIRST above ALL things. Even with my own opinion. When I dishonor Him with my actions, even as slight as leaving a mess at His House, I am REALLY implying that MY actions, time, comfort and opinion take precedence to His! And they don’t! Actually putting Him first in my life.. SHOWS! In EVERYTHING I DO!

Do YOU show God the honor He deserves?