Back in February, I played some pick up basketball with a handful of guys one Saturday morning in Elkhart. We played for nearly three hours and it was a lot of fun. The older I get the more it seems like there is some part of my body that I always hurt.
On that Saturday morning it was my big toenail on my right foot. I don't remember how it happened but I knew when it did that my toenail was done for. I knew that it was going to fall off and this sucker was going to cause me a lot of pain for a couple days.
Well a couple days went by and it hurt like crazy but it was still going strong. Lift stayed pretty normal, I kept running and working out. Soon the pain in my toenail began to go away. I was so thankful because it was hurting me like crazy.
But as the weeks went by, my toenail kept getting uglier. Even without it causing much pain, I didn't like to look at my feet. Last night, it started to look like it was ready to fall off, and it wasn't really ready yet. But I performed my own surgery and ripped it off, it was just like opening up a pop can. (sorry I know that is gross)
The ugly toenail is gone! But under it, it's still not cute, my toe has a lot of healing to do but it already looks so much better.
I believe my ugly toenail is a lot like to sin and the baggage that we carry. Oftentimes we might think of a mistake we made in the past or a wrong doing we committed and we just hold onto it. I think back to times in college where I definitely said things to my roommates that I would never repeat and I used to feel so terrible after I said them. Even though a lot of the time it was a joke, it was still something that I said.
The ugly toenail and sin relate really well. Think about a time where you blatantly sinned. You did something so wrong and you knew it. That's a lot like hurting my toenail. Then when we don't ask for forgiveness and repent, the toenail starts to get really ugly and you always have that feeling it's there. You know that feeling in your gut that I am talking about? Then when we ask for forgiveness and repent, it's finally ripping that sucker off. Then like an open wound, when we repent, it can take some time to heal.
"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
Reading about my toenail probably wasn't how you were planning to start your day, but I would encourage you all, if there is baggage or something that you are holding onto in your life, ask for forgiveness and repent. God is going to forgive you from your sins and you will be set free.
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