Leave the Dirt Out of it

I chuckled the other day when I saw a commercial starring Peyton Manning, the famed quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts.  Manning is bouncing from business to business spouting life clichés.  In one scene he yells out to a coffee server who slips and falls, “Good job, Bobby.  You’ll be okay.  Rub some dirt on it!” 

Our culture knows the experience of human weakness but we aren’t sure how to process it.  Our cliché saturated culture has a few that sound cute, but they don’t help much when you are down and out.  Heard these?  “Be the man”.  “Man up”.  “Never let’em see you cry.”  “Big boys (and girls) don’t cry.”  “No mercy.”  “No pain.”  “Second place is the first loser.”  And of course…”Rub some dirt on it.” 

To be sure, we need to be strong and resilient.  It’s good to learn this as children and to teach it to our children.  But, I fear we do mature faith development a great disservice when we provide no room for the presence of emotion in our discussions about faith.  We grow up thinking that wrestling with life’s difficulties should be done with a firm jaw and a white-knuckled grip on our bibles.  A lot of people grew up with that perspective and eventually relaxed their jaws, turned loose of their bibles and said goodbye to their faith. 

I was reading in the psalms recently and was once again struck with how often the writer – usually David – expresses emotion.  Here are just a few. 

I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me” -Psalm 22:14

“My tears have been my food day and night…

These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me…

Why are you in despair, O my soul?” – Psalm 42:3-5

“Give heed to me, and answer me;

I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted.” – Psalm 55:2

“I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched.

My eyes fail while I wait for my God…

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick.

And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,

And for comforters, but I found none.” – Psalm 69:3, 30

Have you ever had such thoughts?  Such feelings?  As I read David’s diary my mind darts back to other descriptions of him:  Goliath’s slayer, his battlefield exploits, the ‘light in Israel’, and the one who drew to himself the company of the renowned “mighty men”.  He was not a wimp by any standard!  He was steel and velvet.  And, he demonstrates that mature faith can be – should be? – emotional.  We can cry out to God about our hurts, frustration, anger at life situations, uncertainty and injustice. 

Jesus was like that, too.  “In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One who was able to save him from death…” (Hebrews 5:7).  Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus entered heaven in our behalf and invites us to “draw near that we may find help in time of need.”  Jesus drew near to His Father in his time of need.  We can, and should, do the same.   

I take great encouragement in my spiritual walk in knowing that the God who knows us so well has provided us with this perspective of faith.  We just need to remember it and let ourselves “go there” as we need to.  And…you don’t have to bring any dirt with you!

Father, thank you for being near to us – for understanding our weakness and welcoming it into your presence.  May we never run from you – only toward you.  Thank you for allowing us to thrash, kick, scream, and share our hurts openly before you.  Thank you for assuring our hearts through such wonderful texts and stories.  Through Jesus, the Great Physician, Amen.    

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas