Don't look behind THAT door

TODAY'S READING: Matthew 15:1-20
Let's admit it. Every family has done it before and will do it again. If you haven't you are either perfect or dillusional. What is IT? The famous "people are coming, we haven't cleaned, so lets throw everything in that room over there" routine. You know, the one you perform when company is coming and the house isn't ready.
The guests arrive and you hope they don't ask for a tour. Please, don't open THAT door. Oh, there goes someone. You cut them off just in time and show them where the bathroom is, glad they didn't open the OTHER door.
As funny as that is when we are having company, we often try to do the same thing spiritually. And that's not so funny.
Time for church. Put on the right clothes. Drive up and get out of the car. Time to stop arguing. Put on that smile. Shove all the improper, non-church behavior away until we get back home. Hugs for everyone. Hoping someone doesn't bring up that one thing that might cause an emotional eruption.
Jesus wasn't only taking to the Pharisees in this passage in Matthew. He was talking to you and me. How we look is not nearly as important as who we are. What's on the inside is much more significant than what people see on the outside. Worship is not a matter of action, it is a matter of the heart.
Jesus challenges us to be real! Real about who we are. Real about our struggles. And real about the fact that we are really no better than anyone else.
To the religious leaders of Jesus' day, worship was about showing everyone else how "religious" they were. Real worship is an outpouring of heart struggling to be shaped by God.
Is it time for a real spiritual house-cleaning in your life? Are there some rooms you have been hiding stuff in?
We will never achieve perfection, but we cannot seriously pursue becoming Christ-like until we are willing to let God open every door of our heart and have access to every room of struggles that we deal with. Then God can help us become pure from the inside out.

shine!
Jason