Clean It Up

Malachi 3:1-4

Last night my wife and I was looking for something to watch on TV. Because we live in Hawaii we were able to watch the NFL's Pro Bowl during the afternoon, which left prime time TV open for us. After searching through the channel listings and doing some actual channel surfing we decided the only thing on TV was The Grammy Awards.

We watched for a few minutes then decided an awards show wasn't something we really wanted to watch. So we went to our faithful standby; online streaming. As we searched through the hundreds of choices we had I asked my wife what she was in the mood for. She said something that will make her feel good.

She went to take a shower while I continued to search. I wasn't sure what she meant by "feel good", so I looked for different options. maybe a movie that'll make us cry was what she wanted. Maybe she needed to laugh. Maybe she just wanted to relax with a movie about positive life stuff.

When she came downstairs and sat next to me I told her that after looking through the many choices we had that maybe watching a stand-up comedian would be a good choice. She agreed. As we watched the chosen comedian we both laughed harder than we have in quite some time. His stories were real, his comedy was close to home.

He said things that most people only think about. He was vulgar, obnoxious, crude, and at times down-right nasty. My wife and I were thoroughly entertained by his show of honest reality.

After we watched his show she said she wanted to watch another stand-up comedian. We found another show and began watching a comedian who referred to himself as "fluffy" instead of overweight. He said during his show that he is often asked why he puts himself down during his shows. His reply was that he doesn't say things about himself, rather he repeats what others say about him.

This second comedian was just as funny, just as honest, his stories also hit close to home. The only difference between the two was the second comedian didn't swear or get vulgar.

Later, when we talked about the two comedians we both agreed that the use of language wasn't really an issue as the message was the same: accept people for who they are, even if it means stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Which brings me to this morning's passage. I was taught that this passage meant that I have to be "cleaned" by Jesus in order to get to heaven. Being cleaned meant that I had to live a rigid set of rules. As I got into my preteens I had a self realization that I could never live by those rules, so why try.

I'm a lot older now, and have a different understanding of what this passage means to me. Instead of being clean, I should do my best to "sharpen and shine" the tools given to me by God so that I may use those tools to help live the teachings of Jesus.

Last night was a good night. I relaxed at home with my wife and best friend and shared in much needed laughter. All thanks to a couple of funny guys sharing their message to love one another in their own way.