This morning I was praying about unbelievers. I was praying about how hard it is to share Jesus sometimes. It seems a lot of people just don’t want to hear it.
As someone who feels called to spread the Word, I was praying — more like lamenting — that it’s not easy.
“Why is it so hard, Lord?”
Within seconds the bright morning sun peaked out behind a tree in our backyard and shone through the living room windows. I could feel the warmth.
Then I sighed.
My windows looked filthy in that ol’ sun. Fingerprints, dust, smudges from who in tarnation knows what… is that a footprint? 🤦🏻♀️
I don’t know when they’ve been cleaned last. These windows are so high up from the ground that ladders don’t reach them, so it takes help and equipment. And I just haven’t made it a priority.
As I winced at my windows, I could sense Jesus nodding… then I realized, that’s it. That’s why it’s so dang hard to share Jesus sometimes.
Sometimes people don’t want the light of God because it exposes our smudges. It reveals the ways we’ve failed to clean up our souls which, ideally, should be as transparent as glass.
I wanted the sun to go back behind the trees because my windows looked better with less light. Some people want this whole Jesus movement to go back into hiding for the same reason.
Even Christians, let’s be honest.
A lot of Christians want the gospel, but only to a certain degree. They don’t really want it ALL because again, smudges.
And I get it. 🙋🏻♀️ I too prefer the easy message of salvation and mercy over the hard message of repentance and the cross.
But here’s the thing: nobody’s got clean windows, y’all. Nobody. I don’t care who you are. So we don’t need to wait to go to Jesus until we’ve cleaned them. Friends, Jesus is the cleaning service.
Like my windows, we’ve all got smudges we simply can’t clean on our own. Alone, the notion of “spotless” is simply too far out of our reach. We don’t have what it takes to do a job like that ourselves.
We need grace. We need mercy. We need the living water of God to wash over us.
But first we have to want to be clean. We have to make it a priority. We have to make the time to sit in the presence of God and let his light shine upon us.
Yeah, ok, He might point out our smudges at times, but more often than not He just wraps us in warmth.
So don’t be afraid to sit with Him. If today you feel Him peaking behind the trees, be still. Don’t squint or cower or run away. He doesn’t care about the smudges. He came to wipe them clean.
**This picture doesn’t do it justice. The rays weren’t as bright when I took it and my giant smudges aren’t apparent. But I swear they’re there.
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