Think tank: "pure"

Canterbury bells--they also come in pink and blue.

I grew up with two brands of bathroom soap. Most prominent in the tub’s soap dish was a coral-colored brand touted for its deodorant properties. Occasionally it was used wash sassiness from children’s mouths, a practice I didn’t take to my own parenting!  The other was a white bar that claimed to be 99 44/100% pure.  It’s still sold today, though the market has turned in favor of “cleansers” with oils that stave off wrinkles. Almost 100% pure, they’re not.
 

But the little, enduring white bar still attracts buyers looking for something pure and simple. Its “whiteness” no doubt adds to its impression of being the right soap for cleansing away dirt. When I’m told in Philippians 4:8 to think about whatever is pure, I’m to focus on something that’s not contaminated.  “Pure” implies thinking about high moral character. While our culture drenches us with all that is “unclean,” we’re to rise above that, to come away from it.

 

I grew up in what has become a rare home: with two parents who loved God and made sure their children were regularly in church and Sunday school with them.  I went through the youth instruction classes, dutifully memorizing the answers about the church’s doctrinal teachings.  I didn’t engage in any major teen rebellion and studied hard, graduating fifth in my high school class of some 450. If you had then asked me to describe myself as a bar of soap, I’d be that “almost pure” white bar.  Knowing pride to be a sign, I left room for growth.  Ha!

Despite all the training in my childhood church, I didn’t really “get” the idea of a personal Savior until I became a young adult and moved to a new town for my first job.  I’m sure the salvation message—of Jesus dying for my sins--was part of early religious education. But there was also a strong emphasis on “works”—that if you do this or that, you will find favor with God and go to Heaven when you die.  Wrong! Finally, I heard teaching that connected the historical Jesus, who went through a horrible death for my sins, to the resurrected Christ waiting to be my personal redeemer.

I met Jesus as my Savior when I realized my “almost-pure” life was unbelievably sin-dirty by Heaven’s standards. I also learned of His extravagant forgiveness for the worst of sins.  King David, for example.  Here was a man tapped to be king, who spent his early life composing praise music, who tried to do right while waiting for his time to become king.  Years later, all that came crashing down.  Lust fulfilled. Murderous plan accomplished.  Finally, after miserable years, the King confessed his sins and prayed what is a model for us:

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.  –Psalm 51:7b

So how do we curb anxiety by thinking of things that are pure? By looking to the Savior who never sinned, who lived in purity and love. For me.  For you.

 

Next: "lovely."