Search Me Oh, God!

We are excellent at seeing what's wrong with everyone and everything. I have to admit, last night watching the address to Congress I did my share of yelling... I mean commenting at the screen. I saw everything that I thought was wrong. And, I let my wife know about it. Am I implying that we are to keep our comments concerning government under wraps? Not at all! Thankfully we (still) live in a country where this is supposed to be the norm.

But, today it has caused me to consider myself. I prayed a sarcastic prayer to God that He would open the eyes of the new administration... yet the sarcastic tone caught my attention. I immediately prayed that God would open my eyes instead. Then my mind exited the political and turned to the sacred... the spirit... the temple of God housed in me (I do still hate that the political and the sacred have to be separate, but such is life).

My prayers turned to myself... "God, my Father, what wicked ways do you find in me?" Then the flood came, right? If one looks, really looks, wicked ways are not hard to find. Especially if I'm the one looking and the microscope is pointed at my heart. I shuddered. Of all the prayers for God to answer!

Why has Christianity resigned sin to the big three... sex, drugs and rock and roll? I might argue that God had something to do with two of these...! What about the subtle way we talk about each other, or think about each other? What about the way we are jealous and envious when our friends get the big breaks we think we deserve? Or, the way we inwardly nod in agreement when someone gets what we think they deserve?

Search me, oh God, but not too deeply. Let me keep some of these things. Don't expose them just yet, I've not finished with them. -NOT SO FOR ME LORD! Search me, cleanse me, help me to cast down imaginations, let my will fade as vapor, let me not force my way.

I want to be able to jump into His arms when I stand before Him at last... when I see Him and we are not strangers. I don't want to shrink back in shame. Cleanse me, oh Christ my Lord, as only You can.