Puss or a Pearl?

I write to organize my thoughts. Sometimes they make sense and then I try and put them in a venue that may benefit others, the rest I don’t talk about so I can continue to walk freely amongst society. The words you read will bring to mind some pretty gross images… but stay with it, there is a point!

I have come to think that what happened with Adam in the garden as it relates to original sin, was more than just a casual blanket curse on his offspring. I think that in addition to societal sin, each of us is given a bent towards one or more things that are sinful and often self-destructive. Many times this bent (in the Hebrew it is called ‘derek’ found in Proverbs 22:6) if allowed to be shaped and molded in a positive manner can become an attribute. But if left unchecked can become the instrument of our demise. And then there are those like me. Who walked on the other side of that line before Jesus rescued us and maybe we enjoyed just a little too deeply, or stayed just a little too long. And now that bent has become both that with which you wrestle to remain pure and the instrument that drives you and makes you a valuable tool when used by God.

In my own life it has become an irritant of significant magnitude. So much so, that I have this sense of gathering. Like this giant struggle with my Yetzer hara (another Hebrew term, look it up on Google) is finally coming to a head. And that is when this whole crazy idea popped in my head.

In nature we have all heard of the Oyster and the Pearl. How a grain of sand becomes trapped in the folds of the muscle and the oyster secretes a special fluid that coats the irritant until finally after layer upon layer has been applied it becomes so large that the oyster is able to push it to a head and birth a Pearl, so to speak. Then while looking in the mirror this morning I had a similar thought about man. Not man in the gender sense but humans in general, and how we as humans deal with an irritant trapped under our skin. Our bodies begin to also secrete a fluid around the irritant. And as the fluid builds it gels and under time and pressure sours to some degree and begins to harden. And a little white bubble appears on our skin to which most of us with OCD can not stand to see on our face so we squeeze it and out explodes the irritant wrapped in smelly useless puss.

So, then I thought which one am I? What am I about to birth? Am I still a man with a pockmarked face about to pop a zit. Or this time, have I allowed God to change me into an oyster so I can birth a beautiful pearl for Him?

Which are you?