What’s Crap?

December 6, 2005

WARNING: Don’t read this post if you want to feel good.

OK.

I’ve talked a lot about crap lately. Some have suggested I explain exactly what I mean by “crap.” Actually, that’s slightly inaccurate. What really happened is that my good friend emailed me and said that if I’m gonna keep talking about the fact the people should deal with their crap, I really should explain what I mean by “deal with your crap.” I thought she had a point so I started writing this post. But then I gave up on it because it was taking too much of my brain power. Actually, now that I think about it, that’s not entirely correct either. What really happened is that I started writing this post and writing a post always takes me forever and a day and then one of my shows came on TV and so I quit in the middle.

Anyway, so then I was talking to the same friend on the phone last night and she told me again that I should explain “deal with your crap.” OK, so here it is. (By the way, she and her family might move to Africa. They’re kind of like modern-day Abrahams.)

So.

In one of my previous posts I described “crap” this way:

Crap comes in all shapes and sizes. In general, I define crap as the pain which comes from yours or someone else’s sin. That pain, in turn, makes you do, say and think things that are, well…either sinful or just plain stupid.

I still think that sums it up pretty well and I’m not sure if I really have much to add. Perhaps I can shed a little more light on exactly how to “deal with your crap”…at least as far as I see it.

But before I begin, I’d like to point out that there are a whole bunch of very important people who have written volumes of very important work about crap (although that’s not the term they generally use) and how to get rid of yours. I’ll give you my two cents but I warn you that I’m only a Pastor’s Wife. What the heck do I know?

How to “Deal With Your Crap”

1. First you must accept the fact that you have crap. We’ve all got it so just accept it as a fact of life. If you didn’t have crap, well, then you’d be God.

2. Once you’ve accepted the fact that you’ve got it, commit to doing whatever possible to get rid of it. This is an important step because you should know from the get-go that dealing with your crap won’t be fun. You’ll be going through the fire, my friend, but as my husband says, the hotter the fire, the more refined you get. Don’t let the discomfort discourage you from dealing with it. Just press through.

3. Know that the process is ongoing, not a one-time thing. You’ve got crap now and you’ll pick up more along the way—that’s also a fact. Become a pro at dealing with your crap and you’ll experience more freedom than you ever thought possible. Think of it this way. Imagine you’re on a journey. You’ll be draggin’ along your crap no matter what. So, would you rather keep heaping it on or would you rather unload it as you go? Learn how to unload it and the journey will be a whole lot easier.

Intermission: I know it ain’t pretty.

OK. So now we’ve accepted that we’ve got crap, we’re committed to working through it and we’ll adopt a lifelong goal of unloading it as soon as we get it until the day we die. Now the action steps. I’m happy to tell you there are only 2. PIECE. OF. CAKE. (OK, that’s a big fat lie. I personally rank these two particular action steps right up there with getting my head chopped off by a guillotine.)

Action Step #1: Be sorry. Ask God to forgive you for doing very dumb things. Confess your sin. Repent. However you want to say it, just be sorry for doing what is wrong.

The concept is very simple, yet so overlooked. All it requires is genuine regret as well as a sincere, honest effort to avoid doing it in the future. To put it simplistically, you might think of it like this: Behaving sinfully is like riding down the expressway in the wrong direction. Repentance means you get off the expressway and drive in the right direction. Repentance does NOT mean you just pull over at a rest area with every intention to head in the exact same direction once you take a little R & R.

Bonus: Some basic tips about confession:
a. It’s best to confess to someone else—someone you trust and someone who will assure you of God’s forgiveness. And someone who won’t use it against you down the road.
b. It’s best to get it all out. Even the small stuff. Hey, better safe than sorry.
c. If you don’t know what to confess, ask God. A little heartfelt prayer like “God, show me what I need to confess” is a prayer that will be answered 100% of the time. I guarantee it. Why? Because God WANTS to point out our sin, not because He wants to lord it over us but because sin is what separates us from Him and he wants to be close to us. Believe it or not, He likes us. He really really likes us. By the way, if you pray that prayer (”God, show me what I need to confess”) and you don’t get an answer, it’s because you haven’t listened hard enough or waited long enough.
d. In order to confess your sin, it’d be good to know what sin is. Reading the Bible is a good way to figure that out.

Uh…this post will be continued because it happened again (i.e. my show is starting). I confess.

Category: Life

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