By Steve Higginbotham
In the Fall of 1980, I ventured away from a small town in northern West Virginia, drove 725 miles, and settled in a small west Tennessee town to spend the next four years of my life. Like most young people my age, this was the first time I was on my own. There were many adjustments I had to get used to. One of those “adjustments” was “responsibility.”
I quickly discovered that there were many things I had taken for granted because someone else did those things for me. I had to go to the bank and set up a checking account, and not just ask dad for some money. I had to go to a Bell South store and make arrangements to have a phone installed in my room. And then there was laundry! Can you believe it? I had to do my own laundry!
Okay, so I guess I was spoiled growing up. I never once did a load of laundry prior to going to college. So after a week or so, I ran out of clothes. It was time to do laundry. And I was clueless! That’s why I treasured a piece of paper my mother had hand written for me. It was a step by step list of “washing instructions.” It told me what to wash in warm and cold water; when to add the fabric softener, and several other important tips. I valued this sheet of paper and kept it folded up in my wallet for quick and easy reference.
Stay with me and now let’s shift our focus and explain why I’m talking about laundry. Being a Christian isn’t intuitive. We don’t just “instinctively” know how to be one. We must be taught. Fortunately for us, God loved us enough to leave us a list of instructions; a book of guidelines that if followed, will tell us everything we need to know in order to be a faithful Christian.
That said, I wonder to what extent do we cherish God’s list of instructions? When’s the last time we’ve consulted his list of instructions, the Bible? Could it be that we are more concerned with removing stains from our clothing than we are removing the stains of sin from our souls?
Friends, open the Book. There’s still much to learn, even among those of us who have been Christians for a long time.