"A Bit Dusty"

So…

Sometimes being humble is hard! I mean an everyday struggle hard! 

It’s not everyone who gets a day named for them and gets offered a parade!

On the other hand, a parade with a farm wagon behind a tractor with a sign saying “just retired” on the back, and Mike with the base drum and Sue with the glockenspiel as the marching band might take the hoopla out of the event.

Let’s be absolutely clear! Being humble is hard!

Why? 

Because we are amazing, aren’t we? And we were made to do amazing things!

Plus, so much in our culture is pushing us to be too cool for school!

The pressure is on, to dress a particular way, to have bought all the best houses, cars, and jewelry. We supposed to be able to shoot 3’s all day long and be movie stars, and be the most popular TV and movie stars!

We are supposed to become millionaires doing whatever we have to do. 

We need to have a jet, a boat, a motorcycle, and we have to be so skinny that eating is almost impossible.

So, humility is hard! But it turns out being cool is way harder!

Because being cool was never what we were made for. 

Advertising has always pushed us to aspire to be cool, and this generation faces perhaps the most oppressive call to coolness so far.

Way back when, audio media wasn’t the same! 

Visual media is overwhelming. 

From the advent of pictures, moving and otherwise, we have been creating desires for something other than what we have and are.

While I would argue that many folks in our culture spend way too much times decrying what is wrong with our world, they do have a point! It can be pretty overwhelming to have to deal with some many unrealistic standards!

And the call to be cool just keeps coming at us. It is particularly hard on folks who have not yet settled down with being comfortable with who they are right now.

Our youth are particularly feeling the pressure to be different than who they are. 

We adults, parents and grandparents, want so much just to tell them to be just who they are and be comfortable in their own skin, but the challenges are so great.
And while it is easy to label our world as a disaster because it tries to sell us an alternative reality, the answer to that is simple.

We need to learn humility. To be like Jesus! 

The one who never felt any need to be cool. The one who was born the as the Son of God but felt no need to grasp at that or lord it over others, but who instead chose humility as his way of being in the world!

Understanding that you are a dork or a dweeb or a goofball, or whatever really makes life easier. Because then you don’t need to be cool. Cool really isn’t an option.

I really don’t need cool stuff.

I don’t need to do cool things!

What I need, is to follow Jesus as best I can.

In a world that needs something different - God has laid out a plan for us. 

It starts with remembering who and whose we are.

Genesis tells us God made us from dust, or in the pew bible’s Contemporary English Version, mud.

I don’t know about you - but knowing that the coolest person on the planet - as well as the dorkiest were both made from mud - changes up my perceptions. 

You can argue if you want that you were made from better mud, but that isn’t going change the fact that you still came from a puddle of dust and water.

Oh, and the breath of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit.  

And in case you really are trying to be cool - crazy person that you are - Genesis 19 reminds us that not only were you dust, but dust is what you will be. 

Your fancy car or clothes or even bank account doesn’t change the fact that you are mud! Your ten-bedroom, fifteen-bath house doesn’t change the fact that you are mud!

Your 1 million followers on Instagram or Tik Tok, doesn’t change the fact you are mud!

No matter what, you were mud and you will be mud. And understanding that gives us an opportunity to see ourselves as God does. 

We are the children of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who has placed his breath in us, made us to glorify his kingdom, gifted us with talents and energy and intelligence and caring hearts… And has plans for us!

Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Folks, you and I are all such amazing mud. Just saying!

Amen