Are You Naked?

     Have you ever had one of those disturbing dreams where you show up to school or work and you realize your naked?  My thought in my dream is always, "How in the world could I leave the house and forget to put clothes on?"
     Here is a interesting thought: God created us to be naked!  Look at Adam and Eve, it was only after their sin that they felt shame for their nakedness.  Now, before you think that I am trying to have some weird creepy argument for us all to join a nudist colony, here me out.  I am just saying that our life-long obsession to cover up who we really are was never God's plan.
     I think we can try to cover up who we are in many ways: physically, emotionally, financially, relationally, and spiritually.  It doesn't matter if you are a Christian or not, the same temptation is there.
     John addresses a church in the Revelation 3 that is dealing with the same issue, "You say, 'I am rich.  I have everything I want.  I don't need a thing!'  And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."
     For the first 10 years of our marriage, Dianne and were so blessed, but it always felt like money was tight.  Recently, God has blessed us again and it feels like we are more comfortable financially.  Dianne and I have always strived to be generous with God and others concerning our finances, but I must admit it seems like the more I have, the more I want to hold on to it and spend it on myself.
     The words we just read from Revelation are a loud warning to us.  I don't know about you, but I refuse to become rich financially, but become poor in what really matters.  I refuse to become so obsessed with "clothing" that I don't realize how naked I am without God's grace.
     John gives the solution to this dilemma of becoming so blessed that we forget God.  He says in 3:19 "So be diligent and turn from your indifference."  Indifference is so sinister.  It is that "I don't care" attitude that can creep into our lives.
     If you have been reading my recent blogs, you will be familiar with my stories of God challenging me to reach out to a homeless man named Alex.  This morning I drove past Alex's corner and a different homeless man was standing there with a sign.  Upon seeing him, I immediately found myself drowning in a sea of my own indifference again.  I thought of all the reasons why I shouldn't help.
     In that moment, I was "poor and blind and naked."  What I keep learning is that just because you win a battle with indifference one day, doesn't mean you win the war.  That is why John challenges us to be diligent in turning from our indifference.  We must continue to turn from indifference or as John says we become "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked."  This is not at all what I want my life to look like.  So I ask you again, "Are You Naked?"