Dirty Windshields

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

You wash your car and take special care to get your windows clean and streak-free.  The next morning as you drive to work in the face of bright sunshine, your windshield still looks dirty and streaky.  You run your windshield washer…and the streaks are still there! Then it hits you.  You took great care to clean the outside and make it look great, but you didn’t clean the inside of the windshield. 

You don’t have to watch television for very long until you see an ad for a product that will make you look better. These amazing products claim to make your skin look younger, your belly look flatter, your hair look fuller, and your waist look smaller.  Nothing wrong with any of that. But if you only pay attention to your outward appearance, it’s like failing to clean the inside of your windshield. There is stuff there that needs to be dealt with; stuff ultimately more important than your exterior.

When the prophet Samuel was screening Jesse’s sons to be the first king of Israel, he took one look at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord” (1 SAM. 16:6).  But God didn’t see it the same way. In verse 7 we read:

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

One by one Jesse’s sons paraded past Samuel, but none of them met God’s requirements for what was on the inside.  Only David, the youngest, had the character for a king. When he stood before Samuel the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one” (16:12).

While David was certainly not perfect, he seemed to remember the great importance of tending to what was on the inside. In the verse at the top he asks God to examine him from the inside out to make sure what God saw was pleasing to Him.

In the midst of our exercise routines and healthy eating let’s not forget to take care of what will count for today, tomorrow, and eternity…the stuff on the inside.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Prov. 4:23

Live this week on purpose,
Ron Klopfenstein