July 12, 2010, "What are we wearing?"

Triumphant Victorious Reminders

Inspired by the Holy Spirit

Written By: Teresa Criswell

"“…To give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

~ Isaiah 61:3 ~

Imagine this scene, mirrors in front and on the sides; treadmills, elliptical machines and weight machines throughout the room. My peripheral vision leads my head to turn as I watch a woman get onto the treadmill. My second glance is quick, yet my eyes will not allow my head to turn away as I stare saying to myself,

“But wait? Is she…?”

“No!”

“Wait!”

“Yes! No! Yes!”

“O no! Please no!”

“O, bless her heart, does she know?”

She’s wearing none other than a bikini. You may ask, “Are you kidding?” I must say. “I don’t kid about things like this.”

Panic strikes me as I’m on my treadmill. My eyes cannot believe what they are seeing as I continue to walk on my treadmill. O no!
Some parts of her are truly flapping in the wind!

The initial shock, finally wears off when I come back to my reality of working out. Seeing her in this attire, motivates me even more so to continue working out. As I look back up, she’s running quite hard and quite fast. She even looks like she is getting closer to the edge of the treadmill. I look down at my monitor to see how many torturous minutes I have left.

I look up to find she’s not there.

Wait! I look again!

She’s in midair!

O! Wait, her bottom side just hit the floor and as she hit the floor she bounced and came back and bounced again and came back when suddenly her bottoms were literally coming off. I must say it was like watching a skipping stone glide across the water; so it was with her bottom side skipping upon the floor of the gymnasium, I might add, not so gracefully. Finally, she lands so violently into the wall; the look on her face was of: confusion, embarrassment and laughing in great pain.

I know this is a funny story, and what makes it more hysterical? It is all true! Now I will say on her behalf, the reason she wore a bikini was because in our apartment complex where we had lived many years ago, the gym was connected to the pool grounds.

This story although funny, brings me to a great reminder. Many times, without knowing, what we think we can wear because we ‘feel’ like it, does not benefit the other people around us…at all! The stare of disbelief and shock due to, for example, what we ‘feel’ like behaving as we wear a bad attitude is not beneficial to anyone; and it surely does not bring glory to our God. Furthermore, we can become a stumbling block; tripping others up and ourselves causing undue shame in the process of our focus on what we want or feel, versus what God has called us to do. We have been called to do all things, if possible, not to offend another brother or sister. We must become more sensitive to the presence of our awesome God, desiring to reveal glimpses of Who He is! I am reminded that I must display the compassionate love of God as we receive the oil of joy, replacing our sadness and mourning that God has provided. Let us give God our ashes as He desires to lavishly place His glorious beauty upon your head. Most importantly, let us take off that spirit of heaviness and put on the garment of praise; praising Almighty God for Who He is!