Put on.

Colossians 3:12
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience...

The words "put on" captured my attention. What do we "put on?" A coat, a shirt... something OTHER than our own self. God does not expect us to innately BE these things, but rather to HAVE knowledge of them and be willing to DO them. Only by putting them on, practicing the wearing of these garments of goodness, will we be be transformed, and they will become a portion of our selves. Will they ever be truly "us?" Yes through the renewal of our minds... eventually... but the timing of that does not matter, I think. As long as we insist on wearing them, a holy barrier between our naked, broken selves and the world desperate to see Jesus, we DO the work of the Gospel. The good works of the Gospel are supernatural; charity, generosity, servanthood flow out of putting God's character upon our more disaster-prone selves. It's ok if it feels unnatural. It is the hard work of pruning our nature and submitting to the supernatural God-nature we are called toward.

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