A Clean Heart

?I don’t know about you but I hardly ever see anyone out in the driveway washing the car anymore. In fact as I sit back I can only think of a couple of my neighbors who still do it this way, including myself as I roll my car out of the garage once a week to clean it up.   Hey, I guess we can thank all the quick service, drive-thru car washes that are on just about every corner these days…that and, as my father says, the fact that the world has gone out and got in such a big hurry!

I remember how much fun we would have as children whenever a neighbor would pull the car out of the garage, park it in the driveway and give it a good old-fashioned washing. Now, we wouldn’t help. No; that’s not where our fun was had. My little crew and I were far too cool for that. Instead, we would stand by and wait for whoever it was to begin rinsing their car off…and that’s when it all began. 

As the water from the rinsing started running down the street on cue we would grab a blade of grass, a small stick or something light, throw it in the water and watch it flow! Every so often something would clog up or block the path and one of us would reach down and open it up. Might be a can, might be a rock, might be an old newspaper but whatever it was one of us would bend down, move it out of the way and before we knew it…things would start to flow again…

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You know every so often we come out of a situation in our life journey that causes us to become dirty, just like a car on its daily travels…and we find ourselves in need of a good old-fashioned washing. It could be a failed relationship or a job loss or a myriad of other personal or professional hurts. We pull out, wash off the hurt, the pain, the blood, sweat, and tears…and watch as they go rolling down the street. But in some cases, we don’t come out all the way clean because we forget to wash off that one important stain, that stain of unforgiving on our hearts. 

While all those other forms of debris that have gathered and are now being washed off are rolling down the streets the stain of unforgiving on our hearts continues to block our path. Friend at some point and at some point soon, open your garage and pull yourself out into your personal driveway and give yourself a good old-fashioned washing. For some of us, most of us, a quick service, drive-thru won’t do. We need a good one. A good one unlike any we have ever had before and this time…let’s be sure to wash that stain of unforgiving off…because behind this stain is where our blessings can be found. 

And when we wash off this stain, despite all the hurt and pain we may have endured and what it has come to symbolize…things will start to flow again…