From the Inside Out

So, yesterday evening Brandon and I decide to do a little yard work and I am given the task of power washing the outside of our house.  Everything went well at first, excluding a run in with a wasp nest, until I reached the back side of the house.  By then, I was beginning to get a little tired, Brandon's Mom had Pizza waiting next door, and Brandon was finished mowing and was standing behind me watching me power wash.  Several thoughts crossed my mind, most of which circled around the idea that maybe the back of the house wasn't important because no one would even see it.  It's not visible from the road and we don't really use our backyard for anything.  It didn't help that Brandon echoed my thoughts out loud making the temptation to quit even stronger.  Of course, of all the sides it was also proving to be the toughest to clean.  Spraying from the distance I cleaned the rest of the house wasn't cutting it, I had to get really close and slowly move across a small section at a time to get it clean.

But I've been praying lately that God would teach me lessons through everyday occurrences.  You know, an aha moment in an everyday task.  Preachers and teachers get these all the time and use them as illustrations when they speak, and I believe that God is no respecter of persons and can speak to me this way as well. So, being the faithful God that He is, he answered my prayer in that moment.

Many times in our lives, we focus all of our attention on the parts of us that can be seen by others.  Sometimes its physical beauty but a lot of times it's our actions, our words, our habits, and our attitudes. Now, I'm not saying that these things are not important on an outward basis.  They are our witness to others, the representation of who we are to those around us.  The problem is that we sometimes run out of time and energy to work on the part of us that no one but God sees.  Jesus spoke to the pharisees a lot about this (Matthew 23: 25-27).  He warned them of cleaning the outside of their cup and not the inside making them hypocrites.  He reminded them that if they would just clean the inside, then the outside would follow.  I love the Message version of the Bible for this verse (vs 27-28) You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it's all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh.28 People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds. Don't you just love the Bible!  :)


Knowing what I know now, I should have started with the back part of my house.  When my strength was at its strongest, I would have tackled the hardest part and done a better job, I'm sure.  What would it look like if we started working on the inside of us first, and let the outside follow.  Jesus said we are a light in this dark world and that we need to let our light shine for all to see.  But even the prettiest most amazing lamp, is worthless if there's no light inside of it.  For some of us, it may just mean that we have a little layer of dirt on the bulb that's making the light dim and for other's who don't know Jesus, it may mean that we don't even know how to turn the light on.  My prayer for all of us is that we don't skip the sometimes hard, sometimes painful task of cleaning up the inside of our being, our hearts, and miss out on the fullness of life in Christ that's available to us.  


My prayer for myself and for you is to seek change in ourselves from the Inside Out.  I want to live according to my spirit, directed by God, seeking His approval in everything I do.