If you grew up like me, you were probably taught the “right” way to talk to God. You were taught how to approach Him, the right posture, the right words, and even the right environment. And if you’re like me, for most of your life, you followed the “rules”. But I love how in our faith journey we get to unlearn things.
There are days in my life when I approach God with the right words and the right posture. Other times, I have approached Him in the most unorthodox ways that would make the current church Pharisees curse me to hell’s pit of fire.
The times I have approached Him in the most unconventional ways have been the realest, freest, and best times I have had with God in my life. These are days I have broken and raw prayers with God. These aren’t your typical prayers per se, they are conversations I have with God. These conversations are often messy and ugly. But what I love the most about such days is that it’s the moments I’m honest and authentic with God.
Because of how we were taught and brought up as kids, we tend to think that God is intimidated by our authenticity. And so the majority of believers have this mentality that the only way to get to Jesus is by holding it together, by making dead ends look like heaven, and by acting all okay and spiritual even when we’re dying on the inside. We think that if we go to God with all the things we’re feeling and being real with Him, we will go straight to hell.
I get it. For some of us, the gospel we heard was the gospel of fear. The ultimatum was accepting Jesus or going to hell. We were presented with an angry and insecure Jesus who took pleasure in punishing us for not following the “rules”.
God is love, and that’s the truth. Everything He does and who He is is centered on love. Also, God can handle your messy, your ugly, your rough edges, and your shame. God wants to deal with the authentic you, not the version of you that pretends and puts up masks. God can handle all the things you feel, all your fears, your scars, and all your questions. They don’t make Him insecure and He won’t punish you for it.
And I have realized that the only way you can have intimacy with God and enjoy the beauty of His presence is by losing your manners or your dignity for the sophisticated fellows. You can’t preserve your dignity and seek His deity. At some point, you’ve got to lose your manners and let go of all the protocols. You need to forget what you’re supposed to do, when, and how because that’s the way you’ll have an encounter with Jesus.
Mark 10:46–52 is the popular story of the blind Bartimaeus. He was a beggar and when he heard that Jesus was passing by, he cried out to Him. And when Jesus called for him, he threw off his coats and went to him and received his sight back.
Sometimes, you have to throw away the coats you have been carrying your whole life that has stood as an obstacle between you and Jesus. The coats of shame, labels, your past, failures, damage, and invisibility. Because we have worn these coats for so long, it has become a part of us, a normal thing. These coats have shaped how we speak, approach, and posture with God.
But, if we want to experience an encounter with the deity, we have to throw away these coats. And throwing them away requires that you lose your dignity and your manners. And that takes a lot of courage. But, you either become courageous or stay blind for life.
Jesus can’t be passing by and you let Him pass you just because you want to stay dignified. It’s false humility to pretend that you don’t need Jesus. You’re going to lose your manners and dignity and shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, fix me, touch me, and help me!”
Jesus would have walked past Bartimaeus until he cried out. Even though I believe Jesus knew he was there since He’s Omniscient, it was his crying out loud that caused Jesus to stop and call for him. There are countless stories in the Bible where people didn’t care about their dignity or manners, and they had encounters with Jesus that changed their lives forever.
The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil in Luke 7:35–50. This woman had a coat of labels, a past, and a reputation in that city. But she didn’t care about all that and went ahead to anoint the feet of Jesus and her sins were forgiven.
In Matthew 8:1–4, Jesus touched and healed a man with leprosy. This miracle in itself was scandalous. Traditionally, people with leprosy didn’t interact with the clean. They had to shout from afar that they had leprosy. But this man lost his manners and sought his healing, and redemption because only he knew the pain of rejection, shame, loneliness, and isolation. And when he knelt before Jesus, Jesus did the most scandalous thing and touched him. And the man was healed.
Whatever you need from God, it’s about time you lose your manners and forget about your class, status, dignity, friends, and family. Only you know where it hurts the most and only you know that you need God.
Jesus walked through Jerusalem countless times but the religious people of that city missed the moment and the hour of their visitation because they chose their dignity over liberation, deliverance, and transformation. Don’t be like them, lose your manners and dignity child of God, and cry out to Jesus.
I miss the old church that had messy services, where worship wasn’t entertainment but was done in truth and Spirit. Old church where people truly repented and had reverence for God. Where the altars were burning with flaming coals of fire and fresh bread from heaven. Where God was feared more than man. The old church had the Spirit of God at the center and not programs, mechanics, and protocols.
And I believe that God can revive us again. Only if we lose our manners and dignity.
