A Lesson from the Car Wash
Posted by Andrea
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
Last Friday, I stopped by the drive through car wash. Though there was a long, long line there, I decided to wait it out because the wintry roadway had left lots of dirt on our minivan.
Once we got close to the car wash entrance, I had to decide on an exterior or an exterior/interior wash. I looked around the van and saw the remnants of Cheerios, graham crackers, and french fries. I knew the interior needed a good cleaning, but I didn’t want the hassle of unstrapping the girls, gathering all of our winter wear, and exiting the van. Leaving the van was more work than I wanted, so I settled for a simple exterior wash. We rode through the car wash and when we emerged, our van’s exterior was spotless.
It is now Wednesday and though the van looks clean on the outside, I can’t say it’s truly clean because the inside is still dirty. Each time I get into the van, the Cheerios, graham crackers, and fries are still there, taunting me. I find it interesting that our lives can sometimes be just like our minivan. We may look spotless on the outside but on the inside, we’re still dirty!
Many times our exterior looks great. Our makeup is perfect, not a single hair is out of place, and our fine clothes are neat and clean. But on the contrary, our interior is far from pristine. Perhaps we’re harboring bad attitudes, allowing impatience to make us short-tempered, or thinking unkind thoughts. At first glance, we look great but if someone were to look into our hearts, the dirt in our lives might be painfully obvious.
Why is it so hard to make sure what wear carry on the inside is just as clean as what we wear on the outside? First, a thorough cleaning takes time to complete and often we’re not willing to invest the time. Just as I didn’t want to take the time to gather all of our things and get out of the minivan, we often don’t want to take time to do a Christ driven self assessment and vacuum away our dirt.
Next, we’re sometimes afraid of what we might find. Only the good Lord above knows what those poor folks would have uncovered had I allowed them to enter the interior of my van at the car wash! Would their discovery of a carefully wrapped but soiled and forgotten diaper (yes, that has happened!) have caused me embarrassment? Would the discovery of a credit card receipt showing my account number have made me vulnerable? Probably so, but if we perform a careful inspection of our hearts, we can expect to find a few things that may cause us shame and leave us exposed.
Finally, procrastination prevents some of us from cleaning up. We convince ourselves that we can always clean up at a later date. The problem is that later often takes a long time to arrive and sometimes it never arrives! I should have cleaned out the van weeks ago, but a busy schedule and two active preschoolers have provided me with an “excuse” to put off cleaning up. Are you holding onto weak excuses too?
In spite of the difficulties involved in cleaning up, it is necessary because dirt is impossible to hide. Our friends and family may catch glimpses of our sometimes unpleasant interiors, but God sees EVERYTHING quite clearly all the time! We simply need to acknowledge the dirt and admit that we cannot maintain clean lives on our own. Then, we must give our lives to Christ completely, inspect ourselves daily, and ask Him to give us clean hearts.
Cleaning takes a lot of time and effort, but in the end, we know we feel much better when things are fresh, neat, and tidy. Tomorrow, I’m going to grab the hand vacuum and a trash bag and clean out the van. Tonight, I’m going to grab my Bible, read some scripture, embrace God in prayer, and ask Him to help me clean up the dirty areas of my own life. Do you need to do some cleaning too?
Photo: Courtesy of scottamus (Flickr)
Great post! Perfect word picture! Thanks.
Thanks for visiting again Deidra! Though I shouldn’t be, I’m always amazed at how God uses every day experiences to teach or remind me of something important!
funny, i was thinking of this today as well!