Many of us heard the same phrase from our well-meaning moms: “Always wear clean underwear.”
As funny as that sounds to me now, it was said with love—and probably a little fear—imagining their child being rushed to the hospital in some emergency, only to be found wearing dirty, ragged underpants.
I’ve worked in various areas of the hospital, but my favorite has always been the emergency room. I love the “when it rains, it pours” kind of work—the unpredictability, the not knowing what the day or night will bring. Thinking on my feet is one of my strengths, so maybe that’s why I loved it… or maybe it was the adrenaline rush. Who knows.
In the ER, I saw people on their very worst days. Sometimes, it turned out to be their last. And I can promise you this: not one of them was thinking, “If only I had changed into my best underwear.”
The person being wheeled in on a gurney with blood pouring from a gunshot wound never asked us to pause life-saving measures so they could go clean themselves up first.
It sounds funny—even strange—to imagine someone telling medical staff to hold off on helping them until they looked presentable. But spiritually speaking, that’s exactly what many of us do.
Yes, we humans are funny that way.
We have a God who tells us He loves us exactly where we are, yet for some reason we believe we must clean up our lives before allowing Him in. We think we’ve made too big of a mess. Too many mistakes. Committed too great a sin to be loved by Him.
But that’s not how God works.
I am continually amazed and humbled by God’s love for us. He comes to us in the messiest moments of our lives. He saves us first—and then, lovingly, He helps clean us up.
Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So maybe today is the day we stop trying to put on our “clean underwear” before coming to God.
Maybe today we stop pretending we have it all together, stop hiding the mess, and stop believing the lie that we need to be better, stronger, or more put-together to be loved.
If you’re hurting, tired, ashamed, or feel like you’ve gone too far—come anyway.
God is not waiting for you to clean yourself up. He’s waiting for you to come as you are. Let Him meet you in the emergency of your life. Let Him do the saving. Let Him do the healing. Let Him do the cleaning.
Your only job is to show up.
