I visited a cathedral in a prominent European country not long ago.  It was breathtaking.  I received something of a ‘gift’ there, a disposable skirt.  You see, they believe in modesty and were prepared to enforce modesty on those who visit their church.

I don’t disagree with the practice.  I think that the unrelenting display of flesh that parades through our churches and streets today is both sinful of itself and a stumbling block to others.  Thinking on it now, it would be a fantastic idea within our churches!  Every woman who walks through the door gets a dress that covers up all the things she is so quick to display.  Out go the wrong motivations for coming and dressing, out go the ad nauseum bouncing of the eyes.  Out go the competitive one-upping in fashion and fitness.  The idea does have it’s benefits.

But then there’s the draw back.  It leads one to believe that it is acceptable to be one thing within the walls of a particular building and something altogether different without it.

It’s a sad reality that propriety and modesty need to be policed wherever they might.  But it is dangerous to let the policing be the solution rather than a turning of hearts to lives that no longer require such mandates.  Simply put, our aim should be to live lives everywhere as though they were being lived in the very Throne Room of our Father (because they are certainly visible there!)

The skirt that I was given displays my point tragically well.  I received a disposable skirt, like what you get in the hospital only missing the top part.  You were given one at the door if your legs were uncovered and were encouraged to drop it in a bin by the exit as you left.

Our desire to live lives of holiness simply isn’t something that can be dropped at the door.  Our relationships with the God who made us, the Creator who sustains us, the Savior who bought us, the Spirit who empowers us, it isn’t something that can be put on in one room and cast aside upon entering the next.  Religion can be put on and taken off.  A relationship cannot.

That beautiful cathedral was impressive.  It was gold and elaborate and pristine and expensive and clean and orderly.  Then there was the bin and the open doors. Outside was sunshine and life and babies crying and litter.

Praise the Lord my life is somewhere in the space between the perfect quiet of a cathedral and the chaotic whirl of a city street.  Some moments I find rest in the quiet and some moments I can only hang on through the tumble of regiments and responsibilities.

My life with this Man is not meant to be taken up and put down depending on which one I find myself in today.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory!  For the wedding has come, and His bride has made herself ready.  Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.                                                                                                   Revelation 19:7-8

I’m not meant to don a hastily tied throw-away.  I’ve been given something not only beautiful–like the most elaborately ornamented wedding gown of all time– but it’s eternal.  It’s not a one-use-only disposable skirt, it’s a once in a lifetime treasure.

You’ve likely heard of the idea of your heart as a house with many doors.  True surrender, total acceptance of the life to which your God calls you, is a house full of open doors.  For most of us, however, there are a few rooms still kept behind not only closed, but locked doors.

Are there rooms into which you walk only after having dropped your disposable skirt?  You might want to keep in mind that it was given to you ‘bright and clean’ and is meant to last forever.

The attire to which we are called and equipped, the lives that we are both intended and demanded to live, they are not disposable.  They cannot be cast aside as one strolls back out into the sunshine of a ignorantly, blissful life devoid of purpose, conviction, and calling.  There are no bins.  There are no areas into which our Almighty might call us that would require that we dispose of our relationship, our eternal attire in order to enter.

We have been clothed in beauty, eternal and flawless.  And there is no need to ever change your clothes.  This dress is not disposable.  It’s meant to last.  And it’s perfect for every occasion.