Luke 6:45
Scripture
"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." — Luke 6:45
Reflection
I've spent a lot of words lately on what the church isn't doing. That's an easy sermon to preach. It costs me nothing. It's aimed at a crowd I'm not sitting at the table with.
So I stopped and asked myself a harder question: what do I actually talk about with my own family and friends once the lights go down and the car doors close? Not the version I'd put in a sermon illustration. The real one.
Jesus says the mouth is a leak detector. It doesn't create what's in the heart — it just tells on it. Whatever's stored up in there eventually spills out at lunch, in the car, on the couch after the kids are asleep. You don't have to dig for it. You just have to listen to yourself for a week.
I did. I wrote down what I actually said after church — not what I meant to say, not the gracious version I'd use in public. The gap between the sermon I'd give about love and the sentence I actually said about somebody who annoyed me in the lobby was wider than I wanted to admit.
That's not a reason to hide. It's a reason to look. The same audit I'd ask any church to take, I have to take first, in the one life I can actually change today — mine.
Question
If someone recorded your conversations for the hour after church this week, what would they learn you actually treasure?
Prayer
Lord, I don't want to keep pointing at a crowd when the truth is closer than that. Search what's stored up in me. Let what spills out of my mouth after the lights go down actually match what I claim to believe when they're on. Start the repair with me first. Amen.