Several weeks ago Pam and I drove to P.F. Chang’s in Plymouth Meeting to have lunch with my father-in-law.  The Plymouth Meeting mall is a good halfway point between our home in East Earl and my father-in-law’s apartment over at Rock Hill Community in Bucks County.  After a really nice lunch and some great conversation, we headed out to our respective vehicles.  As I approached our 2008 RAV4, I said to myself, “That’s a lot of oil on the ground.” And when I got up even closer, I saw fresh oil marks streaking up the hood.  My stomach felt vaguely sick as I popped and lifted the hood.  I immediately noticed that the oil cap was missing and as a result, the engine had vomited about 3 quarts of oil all over itself.  I mean, there was oil EVERYWHERE.  When I checked the dipstick, it was bone dry. I’m not exactly sure how, why or when it happened, but the oil light never came on even though we had been traveling 70+ MPH on the PA turnpike.

The car seemed no worse for the wear, and in short order I purchased a new oil cap and poured 3 ½ quarts of fresh oil back into the engine and drove home. Other than the slight whiff of oil burning off the manifold, everything ran normally.  And the next day, I drove the RAV over to a local car wash and high pressure washed the vehicle, especially the engine compartment.  That engine hasn’t looked that clean in years.

Fast forward a week and I took the RAV in for its yearly inspection at M&M auto in Bowmansville, where one of our church elders, Eric works.  Down in Northern Virginia, even after 18 years, I never quite found a shop that I could trust.  Repair rates were astronomical and I always felt like the front desk was trying to pressure me with tons of “preventive recommendations” for my 14 year old vehicle.  But Eric is an incredibly knowledgeable guy, does great work and I have complete confidence in him working on our cars.

A few hours after I dropped off the RAV, I got a call from Eric.  He and another technician had just spent 15 minutes looking for an oil leak because, “the whole underside front of the car was saturated in engine oil.” I chuckled and confessed to him what had happened. I never thought to mention it to him, because from my novice perspective, everything had been cleaned up. The top of the engine looked great.  It never occurred to me that the underside looked like an industrial Super Fund site. I had tried to clean it, but in spite of my best efforts, the engine was hardly clean; tons of evidence remained. I had done all that I could, but it still fell way short. My cleaning was superficial, incomplete, insufficient.

A lot of people approach their life that way.  As long as the outside looks clean and things keep running, they think everything’s fine, even though internally they’ve blown an oil cap and have completely run dry of oil. And if they do lift the hood of their life and give things a brief inspection, they say, “looks good to me!” or, “Hm… looks a little messy, I should wipe this up a bit.”, not knowing that they’ve barely scratched the surface. What they really need is God.  He’s the only one who can truly clean them up.  He’s the one who provides deep internal life transformation. Human effort will never be enough to get us clean and running right on the inside.

In the Bible, Jesus reserved his strongest rebukes for people who looked good on the outside, but were broken down on the inside.  He confronted “religious” people, hypocrites who knew their lives were out of control, but continued to maintain an external façade.  He said,

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence….”

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matthew 23:27-28

How are you doing on the inside? Only Jesus can clean you up on the inside. Through his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, he has the power to forgive sin, renew your soul and transform your heart. And no amount of human effort can do that. Are you trusting him?

Alcoholics Anonymous is an international 12 step program that has helped millions walk free from the scourge of alcoholism.  And do you know where they start? The first step of walking in freedom is acknowledging that there’s a problem.  The alcoholic must come to the point where they are willing to say, “We admit we are powerless over alcohol and that our lives have become unmanageable.”

So, how ARE you doing on the inside? Maybe the first step for you to walk free is to admit that you need help….