This is a blind dude trying to describe color:
Do you ever feel this way about trying to put on the righteousness of Christ? I know I do.
The “taking off” stuff seems easier to me. “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths”…okay I know what that looks like. I’ve done “corrupting talk”. I have a list that describes corrupting talk. I know what it looks like to stop it.
“…but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear”. This is more difficult. How do I know what “building up” looks like if I came from a culture of death that only tears down?
There are some deep-seated sins that seem to be attached to my identity. Some things seem really difficult to tear down. But there are some things that seem impossible to build up, because its like a blind guy trying to describe color. I have a big empty spot in my heart where sin is being ripped out but righteousness has not yet been erected in its place.
Yet I hope…
I have hope for this emptiness because I serve a God who calls light out of darkness. I serve a God who “calls into existence the things that do not exist”. I know that God is teaching me righteousness in places that I’ve never lived it before. I know that God is not only healing my blindness but he is also teaching me how to see.
And he mostly does this through his church. God has placed people in my life to help me live in color.
If you are like me—at times feeling so damaged and empty that positive redemption seems impossible—know that there is hope. God creates beauty out of ashes and he calls into existence that which was nothing. You have hope. Surround yourself with people that live in color.
If you live in color it is a necessity that you seek out those that are learning to see. We need your eyes.
