I have a new car, well it’s new to me. This little Steel blue Mitsubishi Colt is what gets me around now. Love it.
So I was out driving the other night with my son and the windscreen needed demisting. It was really fogging up quick, so I turned on the fan on to full and the warm air quickly cleared the windscreen. I did notice a strange smell though.
So the next morning I get in the car and notice this white dust all over the dashboard of the car. I also smelt that same smell I sniffed last night. It was from the ventilation system. When I turned on the fan it must have blown all the dust that was accumulated throughout the pipes and fan. It was now scattered everywhere.
A couple of days later I was driving home from Balcony and decided to give the fan another blast, but this time I opened the windows and let the dust be sucked outside, well some it of was!
Dust, it gets everywhere.
You will find dust in the most unpredictable of places. Under furniture, on top of books, even the computer or cell phone you are looking at this blog on will have dust on it.
I have dust in me as well. I am actually, believe it or not, made of dust.
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! (The Message)
Specks of dust pulled together with the breathe of God filling them to make a living soul.
This concept of my dustiness surprisingly gives me hope.
Dust is fragile. Here today gone tomorrow. I have a fragility to my body. My body will one day return to dust. My body is prone to illness and disease. I am dusty and prone to illness, even illness that I might not even know about.
I have a mental illness, it is called depression. I have this illness because, well for many reasons, I was born as a fragile, less than perfect, body prone to illness. I can’t escape it, I have my inherent fragile dusty vulnerabilities.
You do too.
When Adam and Eve ate that fruit God told them not to they lost the perfection of their bodily states. They became prone to illness along with every child born born since then too. We live in a fallen dusty world where illness, mental and others, happens.
How do you deal with the dust?
1.Acknowledge your dustiness. Abraham knew his dustiness.
Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes. Genesis 18:27
He knew that he was mere man, that he was vulnerable and prone to make mistakes etc., yet he was still in included in Hebrews hall of faith.
2.Forgive your dustiness
You are not perfect, you are made of dust. Be gentle on yourself. It is okay. Dusty failings aren’t fatal unless you neglect to learn from them.
3. Remember your dustiness as you see the dust in others.
Jesus talked about dust in the eye.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5
Be careful about making judgement calls on other people without knowing the dust in their lives. It may just be your dusty perception of them and until you know more, stop kicking up the dust and throwing it in their face.
How comfortable are you with being made of dust?
Barry Pearman
Image by by alleroo Creative Commons Flickr
Blogger Labels: Remember,Dust,Steel,Mitsubishi,Colt,Love,dashboard,ventilation,system,Balcony,Under,furniture,computer,cell,Lord,breath,life,Genesis,dirt,Message,Specks,concept,Here,disease,depression,vulnerabilities,Adam,perfection,medication,brain,chemistry,relationships,attitudes,Acknowledge,Abraham,ashes,Hebrews,hall,faith,Forgive,failings,Jesus,brother,attention,plank,hypocrite,Matthew,judgement,perception,
