How My Favorite Pair of Jeans Threw Out My Back

I’ve loved low rise jeans since they first became popular in the early 2000’s.

But like all teenagers, I had a running argument with my mother over what was considered “too low”. I still remember with regret a beautiful pair of stone-washed flare jeans that I had to get rid of because of the generous area of bare skin between my belly button and the rise of the jeans. (sigh…..)

Fast-forward twenty years. Even though fashion trends told me it was time for a change, I was happy and content in my low-rise rut. I did not want to be like the women I remembered from my childhood with their stiff 90’s mom-jeans and their outdated hairstyles! I wanted to be hip and cool! (Yeah, I have no clue what slang is “in” anymore).

I took my favorite pair of low-riders out of my closet last week. I pulled them on, admired my reflection in the mirror, and slipped my belt through the loops of fabric. Two hours later I could barely bend over to pick up my 1 year old.

Anyone who has ever given birth to a child, c-section, or natural, knows that your body changes after birth. After I had my fourth child I couldn’t lay on my stomach for eight months because every time I did, my back would get thrown out. So after six kids, my back, admittedly is a bit sensitive. It’s very easily strained. And when I tightened up that belt on my low rise jeans, it threw my back out. (How’s that for getting old??)

I love my old jeans. The way they fit and how they look fills me with happiness. But I cannot continue to wear them anymore because they are causing me pain.

My struggle reminds me of a people in the Bible who, like me, had a difficult time forgetting the old and embracing the new.

The Israelites were God’s chosen people. They’d had the covenant since Abraham. They had the promise of the Messiah! They’d heard time and again that they were special, that they had the law, that they were doing what was right in the eyes of God.

Suddenly, a Messiah that no one recognized had come.

Suddenly, the curtain which separated the Sovereign Holiness of God from a sinful and wayward people was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Now the law, the backbone that had been holding them up for thousands of years was nullified. Invalidated.

Something new was on the scene, and His Name was Jesus.

Can you imagine how distraught and frustrated these people were? They had a picture in their mind of what the “New” would look like and it certainly wasn’t a rugged yet gentle carpenter with nail-scars in His hands. The New couldn’t be someone who showed compassion to battered women, called their religious leaders white-washed tombs, and ate with sinners!

This Messiah would have more dignity than to snuggle the wild little children who loudly dropped their hymnals, kicked the back of the pew, and giggled at inappropriate times during Jesus’ sermons. (okay, forget the hymnals but you know those Jewish mamas struggled to keep their kids quiet during church just like us!)

The new CERTAINLY wasn’t a man who called Jehovah His Father, thereby making Himself equal with God! (John 10:30) That was blasphemy! Wasn’t it?

Yet God, our Holy Savior, who came in the flesh to save us all (Galatians 4:4-7) was calling out to His people Israel to forsake the old covenant and embrace the new covenant.

The old covenant was filled with regulations that they could never live up to, no matter how hard they tried. The new covenant was so mighty, yet so simple that even those wild little children could understand it.

One Man, One Savior, One God, taking our place on that wooden cross. His blood was deep and wide enough to cover sin committed for thousands of years before the cross and thousands of years after. His Love was so incredible, that now even the vilest are invited to partake of the wedding feast and rejoice forevermore in His presence. This is the new covenant.

Many Jews believed the promises of the Savior. (Acts 2:41-47) Many Gentiles were incredulous to realize that they, too, could be partakers of the glorious promise given by Christ of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. (Acts 10:34-35; Acts 11:15-18)

But there were many others who clung tightly to the old way of doing things.

They rejected the knowledge of a Savior. They rejected the repentance preached by the followers of Jesus. These Jews felt secure in their familiar sacrifices and feasts. But their reliance was based on a flawed covenant, for we are imperfect and sinful people. Hebrews 8:7 says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.”

Even the apostle Paul was steadfast in his commitment to the Jewish customs, zealously carting new Christians off to jail…..until he met Jesus.

But when you meet Jesus, when you truly meet Jesus, everything changes.

The old way just doesn’t satisfy anymore. Dead works, and the blood of bulls and rams (Hebrews 9:11-15) is a faded, dry leaf when placed beside the living, breathing, healing love of our Savior Jesus. The tender love and kindness of God our Savior has drawn us into new life. (Titus 3:4-7)

But these “dead works” can feel safe and familiar. Just like the Jews, we can begin by trusting in Jesus, then mixing our own version of truth into the batter. Have you ever heard things like, “you have to go to church to be saved”, or “if you’re not having that personal quiet time every single morning the Lord is probably mad at you”. Have you even thought those things sometimes? I know that God’s truth has been skewed by my own insecurities more times than I can count.

But I don’t want to put my trust in anything other than Jesus and who He says He is. I don’t want the lure of ‘good works’ to cheapen my dependence on the Savior.

So should I shun church or neglect my relationship with the Lord? Should I adopt a happy-go-lucky attitude and do whatever I want, since Jesus forgives? Paul addresses this very issue in Romans 6:15. “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!” In some manuscripts “certainly not” is translated “God forbid!” This phrasing is incredibly strong and reminds me that the equation ‘Jesus-plus-anything-else’, is always false.

The Israelites struggled just like we do.

They’d been steeped in the law from infancy. They were die-hard, old-covenant followers, intent on adding their righteousness to God’s perfect formula. Yet God says that “all our righteousness is like filthy rags”(Isaiah 64:6)

Let’s allow the following story to help illustrate this principle. (Every word is true I’m sorry to say)

Imagine you’ve cleaned your bathroom, scrubbed the tub, sanitized the toilet, and made the mirror sparkle. You walk out for a moment and come back to find your two-year old has decided to “help” you clean the counters. You look at their sopping washcloth, and their gleeful smile, and slide your eyes down to the floor. There, a dripping trail leads straight to the toilet full of yellow liquid because someone slipped in and forgot to flush….again.

You realize your child is Cleaning. With. Pee.

Let the emotions wash over you.

This, is God’s holy reaction to our “help” in salvation. Salvation doesn’t need our help. We just have to forsake the old and choose the new. We just have to accept that His grace is so much bigger than anything we could ever do. His one requirement is that we repent, and believe in His Name and His promises.(Romans 10:9-10) Now we can receive that “new and living way”. Hebrews 10:20.

No more straining our backs putting on those old covenant jeans. We don’t have to suffer under a load we are unable to bear. Let’s stop trying to clean a spotless bathroom with pee.

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5.

Take a moment:

Romans 12:2(NLT) says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

1. Do you have a pair of low-rise jeans in your Christianity closet? Is there a belief about God and His sacrifice that chafes you and feels untrue? List that belief here. It could be something that a religious leader taught, an insecurity about your worth, or a belief you hold about who God is.

2. Now counteract that lie with the truth. After meditating on the scriptures in this devotional, what is the new truth that is emerging from the Word of God that makes the old belief obsolete?

3. Write a prayer asking the Lord for help in permanently changing your thought patterns to reflect the truth about God you’ve discovered today.

Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has MADE ME FREE from the law of sin and death. For WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO in that it was weak through the flesh, GOD DID by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin: HE CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.