School Bus Yellow

So I spent most of yesterday painting the girls' room. We picked out Lovely Lilac...not too dark, not too purple....I'm liking it so far. But the thing is, I had to paint over the school bus yellow that was in the room before (when I was determined that I wasn't going to have girly-girls with a pink or purple room).

You have to picture this...this room isn't a square with four sides. It's an attic room with slanted ceilings, those foamy ceiling tiles, painted-over paneling that doesn't always meet up right in the corners.....so the problem I'm having is that it seems to be impossible to cover all traces of school bus yellow. I mean, when you walk in, the walls are obviously Lilac...and Lovely, at that. But when you get a little closer, you notice in some of the corners, or up by the ceiling, or down by the carpet, that there's some school bus yellow still there. Even if I could get every spot of school bus yellow covered, there are still even a couple drips of it on the carpet.....you can't cover it!!

I've been thinking alot about how we try to hide from eachother...and from God....how we put on clothes and make-up and spiritual talk and a happy face to try and make people believe that we're something we're not. I was thinking about this when processing some of the Russia stuff......"Banya" was the public bath house we went to if we wanted a shower. Yes, public. Like 25 naked women, public. It was a little intimidating at first, but once you got there and stripped down, you were like everyone else....we were all naked. We were all imperfect. As for the Americans, we were all a little uncomfortable. But we were all there with nothing to hide behind. And really, it was kind of freeing. I mean, it's alot of work to hide....in the Banya you could wrap a sheet around you while you sat in the sauna or washed at a bench with a bucket, but you're always pulling the sheet up, trying to wash, trying to cover yourself, but needing to bathe.....it was alot easier to act like a Russian, bare all, and just get clean! I can't say that I particularly enjoyed being naked with strangers and students alike....but I think it bonded us in a lot of ways...no hiding...just the real me.

Derek Webb says that the very best thing that could ever happen to us is if all of our sin would wind up on the evening news for the whole world to see. We could quit hiding and just be free for God to work and forgive and transform us. Besides, even when we work so hard at hiding, the school bus yellow always shows up in the corners....but when my sin and yuckiness is exposed, that's when God can take it away and make me clean.

I'm still not sure how to get rid of the school bus yellow in the girls' room, though....if only we were Minnesota Vikings fans, the lilac and yellow might work together....