Every weekday morning my older grandchilden get ready for school or nursery, a process that involves getting dressed and having their curly locks brought into some kind of order. I watch as their mother’s deft fingers straighten collars and fasten buttons, as her skill makes pigtails and ponytails, neatly fastened with bows or ribbons, as she sponges stains off clothes and rearranges clothing to a pristine condition. ‘I want you to look smart’, she tells the girls each morning.
A day’s activity means that if I pick them up later, they look very different. Hair has usually escaped from fastenings; buttons are undone; fresh stains have emerged. This is all part and parcel of a normal day!
The problem for all of us is not to live in a slovenly way with ‘unbuttoned minds and disheveled spirits,’ as Eugene Peterson puts it. It’s easy to see disheveled hair and unbuttoned cardigans (and to do something about them.) It’s not so easy to see the same state inwardly. Paul tells the Corinthians we must take every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor 10:5) In the Message version, Peter says that God ‘won’t let you get away with sloppy living.’ (1 Pet 1:17) Malachi speaks of ‘shoddy, sloppy, defililng worship’, fuelled by indifference and a lack of proper reverence and respect for God. (Mal 1:6) We need to pay as much attention to our inner life and thoughts as my daughter-in-law pays to her children’s morning appearance. We must be vigilant in prayer, attentive to God and mindful of His requirements to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God through the busyness of each day. (Micah 6:8)