Washing Off the Dust

From J.E. Tada's More Precious Than Silver

Jesus made a point of wash[ing] the dust off the disciples' feet. If you'll recall, the disciples protested at first. But Jesus reminded them that unless they washed their feet, they could have no part of Him. The Lord went on to explain that a person who has had a bath [baptism] needs only to wash his fet, since the rest of him is clean. As Christians, you and I have been made clean by our salvation. Yet we can't help but gather dust from walking around in a world dirtied by sin. It's a fact: your soul gets dusty. If we don't watch it, the dust builds up into a layer of dirt.

What dust do I need to "wash" off of my "feet'? Complaining and bitterness is my big two. Some days I am so bitter and snappish about my RA. It's not fair to hurt so much I can't sleep, to either be too thin because I can't eat or too heavy because I can't stop eating in an attempt to cover pain. It's not fair to not be able to do what everyone else is doing in their lives. No, it isn't. 
But neither, as I have often said, is it fair for me to treat loved ones as verbal punching bags. 
I must wash my feet of this dust often. 
But there are other "dirty roads" we walk on. We gossip about someone...whether or not their marriage will last, and oh, my goodness, did you hear about....
We watch questionable tv programs. Well....sure they swear, but it's not THAT bad. They don't have premarital sex THAT often in the show...besides, you can hardly see anything.

We make excuses to make whatever we "think" we want to do ok. That it really isn't that bad. 

You know what? It really is that bad. We are the ambassadors of Christ. Yet we stand out as no different than anyone else. Except maybe we go to church on Sunday. If there isn't a game. Or that season finale we've been dying to see. 
The Jewish faith was made to stand out as different from all others in the area. Christianity is supposed to stand out as well....stand out as a loving community that does its' utmost to appear holy. We don't. We don't appear holy, and I am ashamed to say it.
We say such unkind things--even as a joke. We watch so many programs on TV that are really not godly at all. How is "Family Guy" (which I have not seen but have heard of) godly? I watch Grey's Anatomy, and I can assure you that the show is not godly...premarital sex and cheating appear on various episodes. 
The more dust we allow to gather, the dirtier we will be. We need to remember that we are ambassador's, that we need to stand out. I don't mean being legalistic. I just mean attempting to show the world that life is different as one of the faith. 
I have heard many many many stories of people who watched a Christian buy a certain TV show/movie, swore, cheated or some other sin....and the person watching said they never wanted to have anything to do with that faith. It was fake anyway. The Christians weren't any different than anyone else.
And yes, we are sinners...but that doesn't mean we should continue with our love affair of sin. We are of a higher calling, and should honor that. To show that God is so important to us that we honor Him with washing dust off of our feet.