Clean Hands. Pure Heart

Listening to the radio this morning while getting ready for work, I heard the DJ say something about having “clean hands and a pure heart.” She went on to talk about how we can wash our hands and make them look clean on the outside.

That stuck with me.

As you probably know, I like working on old cars. And if you’ve ever spent much time turning wrenches on an old car or truck, you know it doesn’t take long for your hands to get covered in oil, grease, dirt, and whatever else has been hiding underneath there for the last 40 years.

I have gloves in the shop — both mechanic-style gloves and nitrile gloves. I even use them occasionally. But I’ve never really liked working with gloves on. The mechanic gloves can be too bulky when I’m trying to work with something small, and the nitrile gloves seem to tear about the time things start getting really dirty.

So most of the time, I just get my hands dirty.

Dirty hands are pretty easy to clean. My favorite hand cleaner for the shop is Fast Orange. It also happens to make a pretty good cleaner for whitewall tires, but that’s another story.

I also keep a small scrub brush by the shop sink for the really stubborn stuff. But even with the pumice in the hand cleaner and a good scrubbing with that brush, my hands never seem to get completely clean after changing oil or doing some other dirty job on the C10.

There always seems to be a little something left behind — dirt under the fingernails, grease down in the tiny creases of my hands and fingers, or that one stubborn spot that just refuses to come off.

You know what I’m talking about. And if you don’t, find a car guy and take a close look at his hands. Chances are, you’ll see exactly what I mean.

Our hearts are a different story.

There isn’t enough Fast Orange or enough scrubbing in the world to clean the dirt and grime that can build up there. We might be able to clean up our hands, but cleaning up our own hearts isn’t something we can really do ourselves.

And unlike those grease-stained hands, people can’t always see the condition of our hearts. We can clean ourselves up on the outside, put on a smile, and make everything look just fine.

But there is One who sees past all of that.

Jesus is the only person who ever walked this earth with a truly pure heart. And He doesn’t just see what we show everyone else. He sees what’s underneath the surface. He knows the true condition of our hearts — including the dirt hiding down in those little crevices that nobody else can see.

I know deep down that my hands aren’t always as clean as they should be — and neither is my heart.

Just like everyone else, I still have some dirt and grime hiding in the crevices. I have things that need cleaning up, things I need to work on, and places in my life where God is still working on me.

We all do.

And I’m pretty sure even a 55-gallon barrel of Fast Orange wouldn’t take care of that job.

Thankfully, I don’t have to clean up my heart all by myself. I just have to be willing to let God show me the places that still need some attention and allow Him to keep working on me.

My hands may never be completely clean after a day in the shop. There will probably always be a little grease under a fingernail or dirt hiding in a crease.

But when it comes to my heart, I want to keep handing God the scrub brush.

I’m a work in progress.

I hope you are, too.

— From the Shop Stool