How Dark Are Your Tan Lines?

 

This picture cracks me up! I saw it floating around on Facebook not too long ago, but when I saw it, the label over the guy with no tan said, "Minister." Haha! I got a kick out of that! But, no matter what labels are on the picture, you get the idea. If you are outside everyday doing the same activity, you're going to get some pretty dark tan lines from the stuff you wear while you're doing it. And, if you never go outside, you'll stay white as a ghost with no tan lines at all. My problem is that I have about 87 different sets of tan lines. I have them from two different bathing suits, the shorts and tank tops I wore on vacation, and my flip flops. But, my darkest ones are from running. My feet are whiter than the rest of my legs, and I think the lines from my Nike shorts are probably permanent now!

Tan lines remind me a lot of our relationship with God. (I'm really not crazy! Just bear with me on this one!) Think about it for a minute... The more you are exposed to the sun, the darker your tan lines, right? Well, the more you expose yourself to God, the deeper your relationship gets with Him. You can expose yourself to Him once a week, once a day, or continually. It's up to you. But, the more you do it, the darker your spiritual tan lines get. 

I'm really working on my spiritual tan! For most of my life I was the epitome of a Sunday Christian. I went to church almost every Sunday, but that was about it. I was lukewarm at best. If I had any spiritual tan lines, they were pretty light, and I'm pretty sure no one else could see them. Over the last few years, I've been making a conscious effort to change that. Matthew 22:37 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." That's exactly what I try to do! I want to have spiritual tan lines that are always getting darker and more defined. But, more than that, I want to live my life so that others can see God through me. I want everyone to see how tan I am!

So, how do you work on your spiritual tan lines? You do anything you can to get closer to God. And that looks different for everyone. For me, it started with changing the way I worship. I don't just go to church. I get lost in the service! I let the music speak to soul, I carefully listen to the sermon to see how God is speaking to me through it, I look for any and every opportunity to let God fill me enough to last me until the next Sunday. I also get into the Bible more. If something is going on, and I'm not sure what to do, I turn to the Bible for the answers. It's like my little owner's manual for life. I read bits and pieces of it daily just to keep me uplifted and connected to Him. I listen to praise music all the time. I've stopped listening to anything else. Every time I turn on the radio or Pandora on my phone, I get blasted with messages of God's love. I look for ways to share God with others by being in service to people whenever I can. And, probably most importantly, I pray all the time! I am almost constantly in dialogue with God! Sometimes it's a long, meditative prayer session. Sometimes it's just a thought or two as I'm going through my day. Sometimes, I'm just listening to Him. And I always pray myself to sleep at night. 

What works for me may not work for you. You have to get to know God in your own way. You have to decide how you need to work on your own spiritual tan lines.

But, I want to caution you against the spiritual sunburn! Think of kids who go to church camp. They come back on fire for God, ready to change everything about their lives and live for Him. But, usually that fire fades pretty quickly just like a sunburn does. If you overexpose yourself all at one time with no idea of how to maintain that exposure on a daily basis, you'll just get overwhelmed and go right back to what you've always done. Start from where you are and increase your exposure gradually. If you connect with God once a week, try to increase that to 2 or 3 times a week. Get used to that, then try for everyday. What I think you'll find is that the more you expose yourself to God, the more you are going to crave a deeper relationship with Him, and it will start to unfold naturally. You will get to a point where all you want to do is love Him with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind! And your life will be forever changed because of it! At least, that's what happened for me!

So, take a look at your spiritual tan lines. How dark are they? But more importantly, how are you going to make them darker?