"Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting."
Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
A clerk in the produce department of the supermarket is approached by a lady. She wants to buy half of a head of lettuce. He tried to dissuade her from that, but she persisted. Finally, he said, “I’ll have to go back and talk to the manager.”
He went to the rear of the store to talk to the manager, not noticing that the woman was walking right behind him. When he got into the back of the store, he said to the manager, “There’s some stupid old bag out there who wants to buy half a head of lettuce. What should I tell her?”
Seeing the horrified look on the face of the manager, he turned about and seeing the woman, added, “And this nice lady wants to buy the other half of the head of lettuce. Will it be all right?”
Some quick thinking allowed this young man to save face when he blurted out what he truly felt about this woman. The question is what if others could read our thoughts to hear what we truly think about certain others? Or what if, how would we felt about someone would always be automatically blurted out loud in public? Would we be horrified? Would others be appalled by the judgments we pronounce on others? Would you want the world to really know how you felt about certain others? Could we still call ourselves Christians if others really knew what was going through our minds?
We believe that we can keep up a good front as a Christian and still have hateful thoughts racing through our minds. Yet sometimes this hostility and hatred will bubble to the surface, and we will be exposed to all our hypocrisy and pretense.
That is why we need to continually pray the prayer of Psalm 139:23-24 that is listed above. Only through the grace of God can we do so.