Speaking of my failures as a Christian...
Does your church do the whole 'greet each other and shake hands' thing during service each week? Ours does. Usually, I'm able to squash my germaphobia and be pretty cool with it but yesterday...oh, yesterday.
See, right as service was starting I noticed the man in front of us wiping his nose. A lot. With his bare hand. Then, he kinda blew his nose. Into his bare hand. Then he wiped it's contents into his pocket. Immediately, I wanted to switch seats but it was pretty crowded in there and service had already started by then anyway. I kinda got a cold chill when I realized I'd soon have to shake that snot covered hand. Argh.
When the time finally came to do the hand-shaking, I decided to try and distract hubby and maybe it would make it possible for both of us to avoid the snot-hand. (I know, real Christian of me, huh?) Only, Hubs wasn't in on what I saw or my brilliant plan...so right away he turns to shake dude's hand. As does the kiddo. Me? Not so much. I kept my back to him and focused on the people behind me. (Who, for all I know, had far worse hands than the guy in front of me, but what you don't know can't hurt you, right?)
(I honestly did feel bad, you guys. I was thinking to myself afterward that Jesus touched the lepers, for goodness sake, how could I balk at touching a little snot?? I knew that I'd fallen pretty stinking short of following Him on this one!)
Anyway, I broke out the anti-bacterial gel and made sure we all lathered it on. Later in the car, kiddo mentioned that the guy in front of us kept grossing her out all service. I was all, "I know! Did you see him use his hand to blow his nose?!" and she was all, "EWWW! NO! But I saw him use it to pick ear jam out of his ear all stinking service!"
(I'd somehow missed this...must've been too focused on thinking about Jesus and the lepers!)
Needless to say, I broke out the gel again.
For some reason the whole thing has been on my mind off and on since then. It just bugs me how easily I cave in to weaknesses and end up following my flesh instead of following Jesus. I think next week I should deliberately seek this guy out and give him a big, fat hand-shake, and maybe spend a bit more time praying for God to help me better show His love to His people, despite my crazy hang-ups. ;)
Two things, Missy
ReplyDeleteone - if your power goes out just put your food outside in the snow and it should be fine. :]
two- germaphobe or not that is DISGUSTING!!! I wouldn't have been willing to shake his hand either! He shouldn't have been willing to shake anyone's hand knowing what he'd been just doing. SO GROSS!! Don't berate yourself for feeling that way in that situation at all. That, my friend, is normal!! :]
#1-- I totally had the same thought AFTER I bought my groceries. If the electricity goes out I will put stuff in Rubbermaid containers (the kind with lids) and stick it out on the front porch in the snow and ice. It might look redneck, but if it's freezing cold out there--it would work right?
ReplyDelete#2--Not wanting to shake snotty man's hand is not un-Christian. I don't think you are weird. I think a lot of people feel that way. Cold and flu does get passed that way. Who wants that? Not me. I'm friendly to people, smile....I don't really get into the whole handshaking thing. I usually tell people I'M the one that is sick, so I don't want to give it to them. Works for me:)
Ok, we are about to get the ice too. No snow, we are further south than you. :) I am thinking the porch like Dawn if the power goes out.
ReplyDeleteThe hand thing. Gross. Jesus was perfect and couldn't get sick. Us, not so much. Don't put so much guilt on yourself. The Christian thing for him to do would not be to spread his nasty germs. What if he made someone really sick? ;) LOL, I would have done the same thing.
Guh-ross. I would have done the same as you, Miss.
ReplyDeleteSummer, Jesus was indeed perfect, but do you really think he couldn't get sick? I don't know, never really thought of it before. I know sickness came with The Fall, but He had a totally human body that was capable of experiencing pain and death... I would think He would also have been able to get sick.
I guess you're probably right, Summer. (Come to think of it, maybe I've heard my pastor talk about this before?... It just never really registered with me.)
ReplyDeleteJesus was the "second Adam", though you can only take that analogy so far. The first Adam wasn't susceptible to sickness either, until he sinned. Through him, we all were born into "original sin", but Jesus' daddy wasn't Adam.
Thanks for making me think! :0)