And yet, and yet…

The other day I was watching a mystery show (Iove me some Masterpiece Theater), and the lead detective in investigating made the statement, “Dust doesn’t lie.” He made this statement as he discovered a ring of an artifact that had been removed, but the dust circle had remained.

That strikes true doesn’t it? When we consider our lives and actions, the areas that we choose to leave undisturbed tell a story about what is really there. We spend a lot of energy and time giving a picture of ourselves to the outside world, but in the end the dust tells the story.

I find this truth when I revisit my bookshelves. I love books and working through them, but once they are on the shelf they tend to sit for a long time undisturbed. And as much as I’d like to give a picture of my knowledge from that book and interaction with it, the dust doesn’t lie.

I think this happens often in our spiritual lives as well. We give a picture to the world of our interaction with faith. We paint with excuses (“I’ve just been busy lately”) and with complaints (“Those people are hypocrites”) and on and on. But dust doesn’t lie.

It may be that you are in a season where you’ve allowed a lot of dust to gather on your walk of faith. You may feel stagnant or tired or even insecure. The beauty of life in Christ is that the door remains open to you. Grace beckons us back always to reenter the path. And even in the days when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus walks alongside us, whether we’ll acknowledge him or not.

It may be today that you are allowing a sin, a failing, to keep you from stepping back onto that path which brings life. Trust me when I tell you that in Scripture the repeated admonition is to breathe forward with repentance. As we lay down our sins and anxieties before the Lord, there is a promise that he can restore. He can breathe new life into us. He can do a new thing in you.

It may be hard to start, but man it feels good to wipe away the dust and to restart with a clean surface.

So start today with a simple thing. Take the Bible from your shelf (or cell phone) and read a little bit. Take time to consider what you’ve read and then offer up those thoughts to God in simple conversational prayer. There are no magic words, no spells, no incantations that you have to offer up for him to hear you. He’s already near.

The dust doesn’t lie, but it doesn’t take much to start fresh.

Signs and wonders, y’all.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19