God in Simple Things

It was a Stan Nze movie.

I was watching Good Girl, Bad Boy and found myself relating deeply with one of the characters. The guilt she felt when she believed she had erred and somehow fallen out of God's good graces resonated with me. It reminded me of the guilt that can consume me whenever I sin against God. The guilt that comes from, ‘but you know better.’ That feeling of remorse and not being good enough. Not good enough for the things God has said to you and concerning you. Because tell me why you know the right thing to do, yet somehow find yourself doing the opposite.

It reminded me of what Paul said in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do."

Immediately, I asked God, why does this happen? Why is it so hard to get over the guilt? How do You forgive so easily and completely?

Then something funny happened.

I was arranging my wardrobe that evening. You know how cleaning out a room can be. It gets untidy, messy and dirty real fast and you are wondering, ‘who sent me on this journey?’ I had pulled clothes off their hangers and placed them on my bed while sorting through everything and putting things back in order. At some point, I picked up one of my jackets on a hanger and it slipped from my hand and fell to the floor.

Without thinking much about it, I picked it up, checked it for stains, dusted it off and went ahead to arrange it back in the wardrobe.

And God said to me, "That is exactly how you should move forward when you fall."

The fact that the jacket fell did not make it useless. When you picked it up, you checked it for stains. If there had been any, you would have dusted it off first before putting it back. The jacket did not lose its usefulness because it touched the floor. It did not stop being a jacket because it got a little dirt on it. Why then do you think your purpose and usefulness should change because you got a little dirt on you? I'll clean you up and get you on your way, ready for use.

That was it.

Such a simple moment, yet it stayed with me. Sometimes we sit in guilt for far longer than God intends because we have convinced ourselves that falling has somehow changed who we are to Him. Meanwhile, God is simply saying, "Get up. Let Me clean you up and keep moving."

I love that God speaks in different ways. Sometimes through Scripture. Sometimes through people. And sometimes, through something as simple as a jacket falling to the floor.