Our Sunday Best

I have gone to church regularly since I was introduced to Jesus Christ at Vacation Bible School the summer before I started 4th grade.  Pretty soon we were all going to church as a family as my parents made things right with God.  We not only went to church on Sunday mornings, but we went to Sunday School, Sunday evening services, and Wednesday mid-week services.  That was just life - and how my life continues to be. 

Though many churches have gone to a more casual setting (and my point isn't to judge that or give my opinion), but for my family, church has always meant putting on "your Sunday best."  I was taught that when you go to "God's House," you go in an attitude of respect, which includes dressing "appropriately".  I know different people have different definitions of "appropriate" - but for us, it has always been pretty much wearing dress clothes.  Same goes for the old-time Saturday night bath ritual - though we are more apt to take a daily shower - we make sure the kids are extra clean, girls' hair is fixed nicely, mom puts on a little make-up, etc.  Or at least we TRY to do that ...

HOWEVER, today I was presented with a thought in Sunday School that really hit home with me.  We get all dressed up and fixed up on Sundays for the church - and we are all smiles and politeness.  While that may be the "real" way that Christians should behave, and I don't doubt the genuineness of my fellow church members who are showing God's love through their proper and kind behavior, to someone on the "outside," we Christians may seem to be flawless.  What they see is nice, clean, prim people - what they sometimes don't see is that we are really just sinners worshipping the God who redeemed us.

In my family growing up, we "hid" problems from the church ... and of course, some of our family's issues were very personal due to my parents' history with divorces and step-children and family members who were involved in very ungodly lifestyles.  Sadly, we never really took those problems to church with us ... maybe we were afraid of being judged or maybe we preferred to not be identified by our issues - but we struggled to work through things on our own, which doesn't mean we didn't pray over them or seek God's help in dealing with bad things; we just never sought to ask others for help, advice, prayer, or support.  At church, we were always dressed right, said the right things, and didn't try to embarrass our family's reputation; we sure did NOT open up about our family's struggles.  And I'll be the first to say IT WAS SOMETIMES VERY HARD to keep up appearances! 

Thankfully, my family has come out of that; we talk a lot more openly about our problems now - and as I married and started my own family, the churches we attended were smaller and less prominent with less pretenses than what I grew up in.  One of my goals in life is to BE REAL.  That doesn't mean I have to spew all my issues all over the internet or among the congregation or to my pastor, but I readily admit that I have many things God has dealt with me about - many sins He has helped me confront - and false thinking He has helped me to get over.  I still have A LOT more to work on, and I guess the Christian life is truly always a journey, never a destination here on earth.  We will not be complete until Heaven. 

I do not want my church clothes to cover up the real - and flawed - me.  I think I will always feel the need to respect God's House by wearing my best to church, but I hope that my attitude isn't hypocritical in that I think that just because I look right and say the right things that I am completely right before God in all things.  I am striving - and sometimes struggling - just like other seekers of the Lord.

The Sunday School teacher today said something to the effect of Christians tending to think that they don't want to admit their sins or weaknesses because they are afraid "they are the only ones" who are struggling or who have committed a certain sin or been in a certain bad situation in the past because everyone else APPEARS to have it all together.  That's why some people hesitate to come to church; they think everyone else is so good and perfect.  But we have to know that there ARE others who must be struggling just as we do because the Bible tells us so:

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man..."
- I Corinthians 10:13.  We all have the sin nature in common - though we are all in different places in our spiritual walk.  In the end, NO ONE is the exception to potentially committing any sin.  No one is perfect; no one has attained Christ's sinless perfection!

Today our pastor reminded us that many people say that church is all fine and well for Sundays, but it isn't practical for "the real world" from Monday through Saturday.  HOWEVER, what we hear and do at church IS actually "the REAL WORLD" by God's definition - it's the world out there that is messed up!!    We need to take what we learn on Sunday and apply it to our life on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... 
So, while I dress up on Sunday for church, I am still the same person in my every day clothes too.  I still should seek to be kind and polite and smile on weekdays - and yet, I should still be real and approachable on Sundays.  I want to be real every day.

There is a German (Austrian?) opera - and book, I think - which has turned into an idiom:  "Kleider machen Leute."  Translated it means, "Clothes make the man."  But do they?  I think it's actually more about what is underneath - THE HEART.