September 24, 2008 

Stickers

          This is the time of year when all the desert plants shed their seeds, and they stick to my socks when I go out for a walk! It is irritating, but also revealing of a lesson. A recent “sticker” in my sock raised a question in my mind. As I am sent forth into the world by my Lord and Savior, to spread the Gospel, (much as a seed is sent forth from the plant to go and reproduce) do I stick to the lost? Do I find a good place to stick (like a nice sock) and stay with the person in need in friendship? Or at the first hint (or continued hints) of unseemly behavior, do I bail on the friendship and the potential of being light and salt in that person’s life? 

          Thinking back to my life before Christ, I am thankful that the Lord sent people into my life to be salt and light on my darkness, who did not give up on me when the going got rough, and my behavior revealed the darkness of my heart.  They may have been embarrassed by my behavior, or perhaps even shocked, but they stuck with me, just like those little seeds of some of the local plants that cling to my socks. They stuck with me, poking through my comfy sock and irritating just enough to make me uncomfortable in my darkness, and desirous of relief. Even in my years growing and maturing as a Christian, I am thankful that the Lord has given me brothers and sisters in Him who have not given up on me when the going got rough, but rather stuck with me during times when my actions may not have always matched my words or beliefs, again causing irritation in my smooth sock, and a realization of my need to grow, mature, repent and return to my First Love. 

           Similar to the “stickers” in one’s socks, we followers of Jesus are called by our very nature to irritate the world. Perhaps not enough to cause excruciating pain, severe damage, or draw blood, but enough to cause one to bend down and search for the irritation and attempt to find relief.  I can hear some of you groaning that I have gone off my rocker. Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating for us all to strive to be irritating to our fellow man. But if we live our Christian life in the light, we will by that very fact be irritating to many (a certain contemporary political figure comes to mind, but we won’t go there). Like Jesus said, no one lights a candle only to put it under a bushel. (Matthew 5:13-15) We need to let our light shine- consistently and persistently into the lives of all around us. We need to stick with others in pure friendship, hoping to win some to Christ (See 1 Corinthians 9:19-22)

          The Bible says there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). That friend is Jesus. Sometimes in bringing others to a relationship with Jesus, we have to be willing to also be a friend that sticks close. Are we willing to go through thick and thin with an unbelieving friend or wandering believer? It could be our very presence and continued friendship that causes our friend’s irritation with his/her current condition (and sometimes with us) to move them to Christ.

          That is what light and salt, (and stickers) do. Light irritates those whose lives are caught up in darkness. Salt irritates the festering wounds of sin. But that’s what real friends are for- to bring light into one’s darkness and healing to one’s wounds; to bring ultimate good to the weary, sin sick soul, and to save a friend from a life of eternal death.

          So when I walk along the way, and find those stickers in my socks, I will remember that I need to be like those stickers, which are really seeds going out into the world, only to be transplanted somewhere else to bring forth another plant. And that only happens if that seed can stick- to a sock, or a pant leg, or a shoelace, long enough to be irritating.